Vivek Murthy

That to build a connected life, it's not about necessarily transforming your life

turning everything upside down, quitting your job and moving to be close to your friends.

All of those things could be really helpful, but you don't have to necessarily transform your life entirely in order to see more connection.

And so here's some simple things I think we can do during this pandemic.

One is we can make a commitment to spend at least 15 minutes a day reaching out to someone we love.

That could be video conferencing with them.

It could be calling them on the phone to just check in and see how they are.

15 minutes is not a long time.

But when done consistently, it can lift our mood and can serve as a lifeline to the outside world.

The second thing we can do is we can focus on the quality of time we spend with one another, even if you don't increase the time you have with others by a single minute.

If you are able to eliminate distraction when you talk to others, particularly from our devices, that can significantly boost how much you get out of the interaction and how much they get too.

If you've ever had the experience

of talking to a friend when they were listening to you deeply, when they were fully present, where you were open and sharing authentically, you know that that feels incredible.

It feels like you're being seen, like truly seen.

And all of us as human beings, we may be from different backgrounds and experiences, but we have three core needs.

We all want to be seen for who we are.

We all want to know that we matter.

And we all want to be loved.

And so giving other people the gift of our full attention is one of the most powerful things we can do right now.

And it doesn't have to take an additional minute in our life.