I love the idea of transferrable skills. This means that there are skills that can be applied across many domains of life.
Personally, as I've gone deeper and deeper into meditation for many years now, I can't help but notice how that has transformed all dimensions of my life.
One of those dimensions being the social realm. The ability to sense energy, emotions, have a steady focus when speaking to people, and be aware of when the connections I have with people begin to deepen or fall off and why that occurs (and more).
When we attune deeply enough, we can feel a flow of energy occurring between our self and the person we are talking to. Being open to the interaction, keeping attention on that person, and paying attention to feeling are the ways we begin to really create and sense this flow. This takes time and practice. As the conversation deepens, the flow and sense of connectedness deepens. This usually happens over a period of time, although some people develop deep senses of connection very fast.
Noticing the emotional changes and flows in social dynamics is really important. We need to be able to "move" with the flow of the conversation and emotions. Instead of manipulating the flow, we need to learn to pay attention to it, relax, and let it move through us and guide us. Embracing the spontaneity of conversation and socializing is key to doing this. This is not a preplanned thing, but is happen based off pure present moment awareness and emotional intelligence.
Learning to rest in our senses is deeply important for connection. The three key components of human connection are awareness (attention), sensation (touch), and emotion (flow of feelings and energy). Our attunement to these qualities deepens as we intentionally cultivate these skills. Of course, meditation is a great way to do this.
All too often we are imposing our agenda and self onto the flow of conversation in order to fulfill some kind of social need (connection, status, approval etc.,). Meanwhile, if we learn to deepen our present moment awareness and sense the natural flow that is moving through us we begin to experience those results in a significantly more effective, meaningful, loving, and peaceful way.
In summary, focus, self-awareness, emotional awareness, and emotional intelligence are all developable through meditation and cross over into the social domain in ways that you would have never guessed.
- Lucas