What is your life’s purpose?
My passion is connection, conversation, and challenging people to engage in micro-moments of engagement not just with friends and family, but with strangers.
How are you living your purpose?
I recently gave up my apartment in NYC, put all my things into storage, bought a car, and hit the road. Right now I am attempting to travel to every state in the U.S hosting workshops that aim to help de-stigmatize loneliness and share the science and healing benefits of face-to-face connection. This project, the Connection Cure, is living and breathing, shifting and growing, in real time, and life on the road is a new experience for me. I’m taking it day by day, hosting as many events as I can, and opening myself up to conversations with strangers whenever the opportunity presents itself.
How did you find your purpose?
My life has been a long personal journey of chronic illness and healing. When I began to study positive psychology and learn the science behind loneliness and face-to-face connection, I started to realize how my isolation had been playing into my own story of dis-ease. The more I learned, the more I wanted to challenge myself to connect more. I discovered Barbara Fredrickson’s work on “micro-moments” of connection and the science that showed how a brief genuine exchange with a friend, loved one, or even a stranger was scientifically proven to promote wellness and healing.
From there, I set off on a mission of my own to see how living a more connected and engaged life could change my physical state of being. It began with micro-moments in my neighborhood, expanded to one workshop here and there, and now, the Connection Cure is a full-time experiment.
I think sometimes people get tripped up on the concept of finding your one “purpose.” For me in this very moment, I’ve found what makes me feel alive. At times, being on the road is hard, and this aliveness slips away, and it resurfaces again as I let the emotions move through me. I know the purpose behind the Connection Cure will shift and change as I do, so in this moment, it’s my passion, my Ikigai—the Japanese term for “that which you live for” or “the reason for which you wake up in the morning.” Right now, that which I wake up for is connection.
What advice do you have for purpose seekers?
For me, my deep passion to connect and promote conversation and storytelling has been an invisible thread throughout my life. If I look back on my most impactful experiences, the moments that have promoted growth and self discovery, the peak experiences that still fill me with joy; upon reflection, I can see the invisible thread that links them all together. Follow your threads and your moments of growth and joy, and then listen. I truly believe we all know what we want to be courageous for, what’s calling us to take a risk, and what is worth that challenge, even if the outcome is wildly unknown.
What resources do you recommend?
Love 2.0: Finding Happiness and Health in Moments of Connection
Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection
The Village Effect: How Face-to-Face Contact Can Make Us Healthier and Happier
Connect with Lisa Daron Grossman
Email: Lisa@theconnectioncure.com
Website
Project Trailer
Latest Interview
Instagram
Facebook
Lisa Daron Grossman, founder of The Connection Cure, is traveling to every state in the U.S hosting workshops that teach the science and healing benefits of face-to-face connection, working to help de-stigmatize loneliness and promote reclaiming conversation. Lisa has been a practicing certified Professional Coach since 2010. She is a practitioner of Positive Psychology, holds her MFA in Creative Nonfiction writing, and a certificate in Mind-Body Medicine. Prior to working as a coach Lisa worked with storytelling as a documentary filmmaker, a copywriter, a tour guide, and a professional team builder. She is currently living on the road full-time as she moves to re-connect with herself, the earth, and others, as part of her own healing journey.
0 Comments