Connection Catalyst: Farnoosh Brock

Feb 8, 2012 by Tamarisk

Farnoosh Brock is a corporate escapee, writer, blogger, techie, photographer, yogini, and coach over at Prolific Living, a space that started with her but now thrives with her amazing growing community. She empowers you to crush your daily fears, to live life on your own terms and to cultivate smart habits that support and create rich living for you.

1. What does connection mean to you? 

Connection means fulfillment, even if momentary.

I have different types of connection in my life now. Connection with my body happens in the deepest yoga poses or the hardest minutes during my body training classes, when I push beyond what I know and I just fall in love with what my own body can do.

Connection with my mind happens during meditation, and it is the biggest irony for me that even though mediation brings me such serenity and inner peace, I spend so little time meditating. It is high time I started doing it twice a day!

And connection with other human beings happens best when we can share a value, an idea, a perspective, a goal, a dream, and because of that, it does not have to be physical. Some of my closest connections are people I have not yet met in person, and sometimes, people that I considered to be very close to me seem very distant as I walk my path and discover new things about me.

So to answer your lovely question in summary, there are three types of connection I feel: With my body, with my mind and with my fellow peeps in this world.  

2. How do you connect? 

What a great question, Tamarisk, and there is no quick answer.

I connect best by following my heart, as proof has shown that I have connected worst by following protocol and procedure, and foolish that I was, l insisted on sticking to my ways until it completely shattered my very notion of connection with others. Then I had to start over, examine, build and create a new way to connect, and now, it does not matter to me if the person with whom I wish to connect is a multi-millionaire, an Internet sensation or a best seller of a hundred books. I first ask myself whether I like the person; whether I find them to be sincere, honest, and warm, despite their massive success and then I connect with them just as naturally as I would with anyone else.

By showing interest, by expressing my desire to know them better, by supporting their efforts, and by sharing in their excitement and lending a hand during a tough day. It is really a lot of common sense that leads us to the best connections of our life. That, and following our gut and our intuition. 

3. What is most meaningful for you about connection {with yourself and with others}? 

The most meaningful? Hmmm.

I think the essence of a connection is born from a shared vision, passion, goal or dream. When you learn that you both share a vision, a passion, an ideal, a source of motivation and inspiration, it brings immense closeness and understanding between you and others.

I think that’s why I feel that some of my friendships have fallen apart because the connection – which was based on that shared passion – simply was no longer there; we went our separate paths and it was too hard to pretend, so the friendship ran its course. So the most meaningful is to continue sharing that connection; otherwise, what is bringing two people together?

The connection can be anything – it can be an activity or an ideal, it can be a pursuit of something or a shared source of love and inspiration – and it creates an amazing energy between people who may otherwise never connect. Likewise, its absence takes away from a connection and I do believe it is hard to maintain that connection in the absence of a shared interest. 

4. How are you a catalyst for connection? 

I like to think that I create the type of energy that engenders and encourages a sense of community, and great connections are created in a community. I do this through my writing – both on my site and on many other websites, by asking tough questions and expecting honest answers and making people think.

I do this through my leadership of communities in social media for my business. I also enjoy connecting people with one another when I sense a good reason and dynamic for it.

In short, I create situations that would bring people together and inspire them to reach out and connect with other human beings through that shared passion and vision. For example, sometimes, it is as simple as initiating a conversation at a conference and bringing others that I respect into the conversation so that the person I am speaking with can simply check out their profile and be inspired to connect with them.  

5. How do you disconnect? What’s the impact for you when you do? 

Knowing when to disconnect and whom to disconnect from can be the difference between inner peace and near insanity.

It is natural to want to stay connected to people with whom you have relationships and friendships, but what’s even more natural is to be true to your own vibration, energy and drive, and if your new direction is drifting away from the initial situation that brought you together with your friends, then it is time to make a choice: Either you choose your purpose and focus your energy entirely there and seek new connections and as a result, you choose to disconnect with certain people who no longer server you and for whom, you are probably not the best connection. Or you choose to be torn in between, connecting where you need to disconnect, and half-serving the other areas of your life because your energy is now split rather than focused on where you need it.

Things change; life is not static and neither are you; you are fluid as a human being and need to learn to adapt. It’s when you stay in a situation too long that you can harm yourself. So I simply disconnect from relationships that do not serve me and from activities that rob me from my creativity, happiness, productivity and inner peace, and the more I follow that intuition, the closer I get to the person I was meant to be. And that, I believe, is the single greatest impact of anything I can imagine. 

6. What advice do you have for people seeking more connection? 

First of all, I would say don’t follow anyone’s advice unless it really resonates with you and that certainly includes mine.

Seek the connections that you feel excited about. Think about the type of network you want to have and the way you want to feel. How do you describe it? What are the words that come to your mind? Is it a network of aspiring entrepreneurs, or a group of athletic-minded adults or a community of volunteers or a mix of all?Where do these people spend their time? What is important to them? How can you tap into that circle and be noticed?

Take small steps and have some strategy about it but not too much because in the end, it is following your heart and listening to your inner voice that will bring you closest to your best connections. Remember the right connections are a source of inner peace rather than inner conflict so use that as an indicator to choose your connections carefully. Also, create the situations which then allow you to experience that connection more easily and that makes it a more natural process altogether.

 

Like this? Want more? Sign up for updates…it’s FREE!