Session 12. Graduation Night Dinner. Reengaged!

Congratulations! In two-hour weekly sessions over just three months, you have positively impacted the trajectory of your life! And, you’ve had a ton of fun and plugged yourself into a network of people who will benefit from engaging with you, and you with them. Now, it’s time to celebrate in Session 12, Graduation Dinner. What will you do now as an engager? As a skilled communicator? As a leader who leads with emotional intelligence and empathy, as well as with forthright candor and compassion? What about as a parent or partner? What improvements have you already experienced? There will have been many by this point. Feel the joy about the changes you’ve made in this Session 12 Celebration, with food, music, dance (including some Latin!), and great conversation!

Below are just a few of the many evidence-based benefits research shows you can receive from a myCONVOCONNECT program. These benefits enhance the value you bring to yourself, your relationships, any groups of which you are a part, your job, your passions and aspirations, and the community as a whole.

Physical and Mental Health for Yourself and Those You Engage

Strengthening your social ties and being part of a larger social system is widely and positively associated with indicators of health and well-being, the exact opposite of the problems caused by loneliness and isolation. Reengagement with others can help both your physical and mental health and theirs. Being an “engager” who helps people feel part of a social system in the workplace, for example, can increase job satisfaction and attendance and decrease turnover. You can help make yourself and others healthier simply by attending a myCONVOCONNECT program and using the skills you acquired or improved upon there.

A Three-Month Group to Enhance the Rest of Your Life

Being part of a social group, like a myCONVOCONNECT cohort or community of graduates, helps individuals cope more effectively by more accurately evaluating their abilities to deal with issues individually and collectively (Haslam et al., 2018). There is ample evidence that feeling part of your community can positively affect psychological health, well-being and attitudes about people in other groups or communities, and overall satisfaction with life (McNamara et al., 2021).

Become “An Engager”:

People dealing with loneliness and isolation are in a state of stress. When under stress, we are hyper-vigilant and more likely to misinterpret the behaviors of others as threatening. This misperception can make us “socially pessimistic,” leading us to avoid interactions and creating a negative downward spiral into isolation (Cacioppo & Hawkley, 2005). If you want to create a network of social relationships in your life—or improve the ones you already have—showing up as “an engager” will draw others to you, even if they feel lonely or isolated. In their hyper-vigilance, they see you as a safe connection to make and enrich. In this way, you will help and heal yourself and your relationships and even help bring about positive physical and mental health changes in those with whom you engage.

References

Cacioppo, J. T., & Hawkley, L. C. (2005). People thinking about people: The vicious cycle of being a social outcast in one’s own mind. In K. D. Williams, J. P. Forgas & W. von Hippel (Eds.), The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying (pp. 91–108). New York, NY: Psychology Press.

Haslam, C., Jetten, J., Cruwys, T., Dingle, G. A., & Haslam, S. A. (2018). The new psychology of health: Unlocking the social cure. New York, NY: Routledge.

McNamara, N., Stevenson, C., & Muldoon, O. T. (2013). Community identity as resource and context: A mixed method investigation of coping and collective action in a disadvantaged community. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 393–403. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.1953