Facing the Crisis of Disconnection with Confidence

By Rita Marie Johnson

Take a quick look at today’s news headlines and it’s easy to see that our world is facing a crisis of disconnection. Modern life — fast-moving, stress-filled, at times aggressive and violent — tends to disconnect us from our inner lives and from each other. People are coping the best they can, but they often choose destructive strategies such as addictions, isolation and antisocial behaviors to handle their challenges.

In schools, disconnection reduces learning and leads to acting out in unhealthy ways. At home, it causes incessant fighting, domestic violence and increasing divorce rates. In business, it impacts teamwork and the bottom line. Between countries, it can lead to war. Not knowing how to consistently connect with others keeps us stuck, personally, professionally and globally. It creates needless suffering and impairs our hope for positive change.

We have been willing to invest countless amounts of time and money in dealing with the consequences of disconnection — prisons, special programs in schools, organizations dealing with addiction recovery and domestic violence, counter terrorist strategies, and on it goes. But despite our best efforts, the problems seem to be increasing.

Many people throw up their hands at this pervasive human scenario because they can’t see a way to change the downward spiral. Could it be that we’ve missed the obvious root cause of these problems — lack of connection? What if we invested wholeheartedly in teaching people the Connection Practice®, an efficient, powerful way to consistently connect with themselves and others? This scientifically based social-emotional skill is an innovative, proven approach that gives us the clarity and confidence we need to resolve our crisis of disconnection.

Research validates the conclusion that we must practice connection if we are to turn toward a positive future. Threat Assessment in Schools, a well-researched guide by the United States Secret Service and the Department of Education, says, “Connection is the critical emotional glue” and “a central component of a culture of safety and respect.” Isn’t it strange that connection has been diagnosed as critical in our schools, yet funds are rarely invested in it? Perhaps it is because schools don’t yet know how to go about it. They need to discover the Connection Practice.

In a popular TED talk, British journalist Johann Hari discussed the available research on the underlying causes of addiction; he concluded that the opposite of addiction is not sobriety, it’s connection.

We have a lot more evidence that connection is essential for humans to thrive. What we haven’t had is a solution to disconnection that is simple and efficient enough to be implemented globally. We have that now in the Connection Practice.

empathy + insight = connection

This social-emotional skill unites our empathy and insight for truly extraordinary results. Its six basic steps have been taught to thousands of people of all ages from all walks of life. The Connection Practice can be used at any moment to reduce stress, become self-aware and access your best intelligence for making choices.

On the 4th of July, when I was 10 years old, I was bored waiting for the fireworks and decided to take a walk down our country road. As I walked, a breathtaking sunset was unfolding before me, and I was filled with a deep peace. Suddenly a voice inside my heart seemed to shout, “You will work for peace.” I never forgot that moment, and I ended up working for peace in many different ways in my life. Now I realize that the sunset I saw sent me into heart-brain coherence, the step of the Connection Practice that leads us to insights. It is thrilling to see a participant get in touch with his or her own life purpose through an insight in one of our courses.

Insights are just one of the benefits that come from this practice. Another benefit is that it melts away pain, even pain that has been stuffed deep inside for years. When I offered a week-long course in Japan, the participants told me their culture teaches men to suppress their feelings and needs. On the third day, the participants were working on an exercise in small groups, and I was deeply moved to see that the majority of the men were crying. The empathy they had experienced for the first time in their lives was setting them free.

I see so much unnecessary hurt and suffering from internal and external conflicts; the Connection Practice can prevent or resolve most of them. People find that hard to believe until they experience their own hearts full of awe at a peaceful outcome they couldn’t have envisioned. Imagine a world in which every person has learned how disagreements can be used to deepen our connections rather than to hurt each other.

We have offered Connection Practice in-person courses for 14 years. Now self-study webinars are available at www.connectionpractice.org. Many participants continue on to become certified as Connection Practice trainers. The next certification course will be October 12-19, 2018 in San Jose, California.

The choice is clear: we can practice the art of connection or continue to put Band-Aids on our world. Which one will give you the confidence you need to face our global crisis of disconnection?

Rita Marie Johnson, bestselling author, international speaker and award-winning innovator, has taught the Connection Practice worldwide. She first introduced it in Costa Rican public schools, reaching well over 40,000 students. Now it is taught in U.S. schools, addiction recovery centers, domestic violence centers, faith-based communities, businesses and online. Beginning in 2010, Johnson taught the Connection Practice at the United Nations University for Peace, a graduate school for international leaders.

Founder and CEO of Rasur Foundation International (RFI), Johnson is the author of Completely Connected: Uniting Our Empathy and Insight for Extraordinary Results, an Amazon bestseller endorsed by President Oscar Arias, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate. In 2016, the book won a Nautilus Award in the Psychology category. Johnson’s work brought her the Ashoka Changemakers Innovation Award: Building a More Ethical Society, chosen from 79 projects in 32 countries. In 2017, she received  Unity’s Light of God Expressing Award and in 2018, she received a New Thought Walden Award in the New Thought Wisdom category.