Remember that everyone you meet is afraid of something, loves something, and has lost something.”
“— H. Jackson Brown, Jr.
How good is your ability to open up and deeply connect with other people? You can easily answer this question by thinking back to when and how often someone said one of the following sentences to you:
- “You’re the first person I have ever told this.”
- “You’re the only one who understands this.”
- “You’re the only one I can really talk with about this.”
If this is stuff people say to you regularly, congratulations: You certainly know how to open up other people and connect with them deeply. These questions reveal that someone found a confidant in you — a person they can trust and be honest, open, and vulnerable with.
These are sentences that I have heard several times in my life, both from close friends and also from acquaintances and strangers that I have just met on that very day. I always noticed that people do confide in me easily. I used to think these were just coincidences — being in the right place at the right time.
I also noticed, however, that this ability to connect deeply with other people, is the lifeblood of all the important relationships in my life. That’s why I did a six-month retrospective on my relationships. I wanted to examine how these connections and relationships started and how I can consciously take all my interactions to a higher level.............See link for more