Reading: #88: Helping Others Connect and Belong (Amy Giddon)

*NOTE: This episode was recorded on February 17, 2020. Any upcoming events mentioned in this episode have been postponed until further notice. For information on our upcoming virtual events over Zoom you can click here and see the full lineup. Thank you so much and I can’t wait to connect with everyone in person soon. Stay safe!

“I’m learning how much we need to feel not alone,” says Amy Giddon, co-founder and Chief Connection Officer of Daily Haloha, a mobile app that allows people to connect more deeply and compassionately to themselves through a shared experience of reflection. “We’re wired for connection. It’s poignant that a two minute ritual can make people feel belonging.” Each day the app asks users to answer a simple question or fill in the blank, such as “I’m becoming ______”; shared answers create a kind of group connection. Through her work in strategic and financial planning at Bain & Company and women’s leadership development at Barnard College, Giddon discovered how the voices of “women and others can be marginalized and not heard.” After the 2016 election, she sensed people “felt silenced and separated.” She says Daily Haloha became “like a calling” and was birthed at her kitchen table.