How opening yourself up creates deep human connection...

I’m currently on a business trip in Latin America in which I have to drive around Bogota visiting one customer after another. Sometimes the drive time between meetings can be up to 45 minutes.

 Today, I ended up having a really open, honest and vulnerable conversation with a complete stranger while driving from one meeting to the next. This stranger is someone I had met once before, for a few minutes, in a work setting. Today, he accompanied me to visit his customer and offered to drive me to my next meeting.

 What could have been a typical superficial conversation about our jobs and where we are from, ended up being a beautiful, deep, honest conversation where two strangers open up to share their most challenging moments so far and how they managed to overcome them. We shared our individual struggles with depression and anxiety. We also learned how this helped us view life in a whole different way, our priorities changed, and now we do more of what we love and makes us happy.

 I left that car ride with a deep sense of fulfillment. These small, beautiful moments are what life is all about. In 1 year I won’t remember what I did during this trip. But I will always remember what we spoke about and how amazing that felt.

 Next time you are in the presence of someone else, whether in a car, an elevator, the hair salon getting a haircut:

*** I invite you to put your phone away.

*** I invite you to engage in conversation.

*** I invite you to actively listen to what the person is saying with genuine interest.

*** I invite you to ask questions, whatever comes to mind and sparks your curiosity based on what they are saying. 

*** I invite you to share whatever comes up for you as well.

 Often times thoughts & questions come to mind but we don’t say them out loud. We are afraid of what the other person will think of us.

 You’d be surprised how most people are willing to engage as well. Most people are also craving that human connection. Most people want to be heard by others and hear others out.

You’d be surprised how fulfilling this can feel. You’d be surprised how much you can learn about yourself and about others.

Try it out for yourself.