Hey everyone, my name is Rosie and I'm one of the new hosts of Radio Headspace.

I'm an author and a yoga meditation teacher and my new episodes are debuting February of next year.

I can't wait to share them with you.

In the meantime, I'd like to let you know about a new show from Headspace Studios called Dear Headspace.

It's a call and advice show where Headspace teachers answer questions each week about anything and everything.

We talk about family, relationships, mindfulness and so much more.

You can find Dear Headspace on the Headspace app or wherever you listen to podcasts.

Thanks for listening.

Hi, I'm Sam and welcome to Radio Headspace.

Today is day four of my favorite mindfulness practices and today we're going to be talking about connection.

So throughout my mid-20s, I worked with UCLA's Mindful Awareness Research Center, teaching mindfulness to teens, children and families.

And I loved being on the UCLA campus.

As there's always an interesting lecture to attend and a cozy cafe where I could chat with colleagues and read.

I remember receiving an invite to a lecture titled, Positiveity Resonates, Creating Health and Happiness in Moments of Connection.

And it was led by a woman named Barbara Fredrickson.

She wrote a book called Love 2.0 in which she discusses her research on the physiological benefits that Moments of Connection provide.

She extends the definition of love to include moments of shared positive emotion and she says that love is first and foremost an emotion.

A dynamic mind-body process that rolls through you for a few micromoments at a time when you connect with someone else over a shared positive feeling.

Her research has shown that vagal tone increases the more we experience more moments of connection.

It even increases from reflecting on the micromoments of connection that we've had recently.

Vagal tone refers to the activity of the vagus nerve and this vagus nerve connects our brain to our heart, causing a slight increase in our heart rate as we breathe in and a slight decrease in our heart rate as we breathe out.

It's fascinating stuff, but the main takeaway here is that the greater our vagal tone, the faster our body can relax and recover from stress, which is pretty important for our overall health.

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