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Connected from Afar
Do you wish you could feel closer to your friends who are far away?
Just because you’re physically separated doesn’t mean you have to grow apart or let your conversations stagnate in repetitive daily updates. You can still deepen and strengthen your bond from far away with a little bit of intention, creativity and a willingness to try something new.
In this quick and easy guide, Kat Vellos, author of We Should Get Together and creator of Better than Small Talk, gives you the tools to breathe new life and fresh connection into your existing friendships. (You can even try these activities with family members and romantic partners, too.) Filled with creative activities, conversation starters, journaling prompts and art project ideas, Connected from Afar will help you feel closer and more connected, no matter how far away you are.
**50% the proceeds from Connected from Afar will go towards supporting organizations working on the #COVID19 pandemic response.**
Just because you’re physically separated doesn’t mean you have to grow apart or let your conversations stagnate in repetitive daily updates. You can still deepen and strengthen your bond from far away with a little bit of intention, creativity and a willingness to try something new.
In this quick and easy guide, Kat Vellos, author of We Should Get Together and creator of Better than Small Talk, gives you the tools to breathe new life and fresh connection into your existing friendships. (You can even try these activities with family members and romantic partners, too.) Filled with creative activities, conversation starters, journaling prompts and art project ideas, Connected from Afar will help you feel closer and more connected, no matter how far away you are.
**50% the proceeds from Connected from Afar will go towards supporting organizations working on the #COVID19 pandemic response.**
76 pages, Paperback
Published April 1, 2020
14 people are currently reading
307 people want to read
About the author
Kat Vellos
3 books61 followersKat Vellos is a trusted expert on the power of cultivating meaningful connections, the loneliness epidemic, community-building, and healthy work environments.
She's the author of "We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships" which was called "marvelous" by BookLife, a subsidiary of Publishers Weekly, and which Kirkus Reviews compared to the work of Norman Vincent Peale and Cicero. Since its release in January 2020, it's been helping adults around the world heal from disconnection and loneliness. Following on the heels of her debut book's success, she recently released "Connected from Afar: A Guide for Staying Close When You're Far Away" to support readers who are trying to maintain and bolster their friendships without the benefit of face-to-face interaction.
Kat has twenty years' experience creating communities where people find belonging and authentic connection. A veteran facilitator, she founded Better than Small Talk and Bay Area Black Designers which was profiled by Forbes. Both groups have created community and connection for hundreds of people across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
She's also a seasoned researcher and UX designer. She's worked for Slack, Pandora, and multiple Silicon Valley startups. She's graced the stage as a speaker for Design for America, UX Week, Social Good Tech Week, the Transforming Loneliness Summit, AIGA SF, and many more.
Kat has now turned her UX expertise towards combating the loneliness epidemic, by helping millions of people experience greater wellness and fulfillment through thriving platonic relationships.
She's the author of "We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships" which was called "marvelous" by BookLife, a subsidiary of Publishers Weekly, and which Kirkus Reviews compared to the work of Norman Vincent Peale and Cicero. Since its release in January 2020, it's been helping adults around the world heal from disconnection and loneliness. Following on the heels of her debut book's success, she recently released "Connected from Afar: A Guide for Staying Close When You're Far Away" to support readers who are trying to maintain and bolster their friendships without the benefit of face-to-face interaction.
Kat has twenty years' experience creating communities where people find belonging and authentic connection. A veteran facilitator, she founded Better than Small Talk and Bay Area Black Designers which was profiled by Forbes. Both groups have created community and connection for hundreds of people across the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond.
She's also a seasoned researcher and UX designer. She's worked for Slack, Pandora, and multiple Silicon Valley startups. She's graced the stage as a speaker for Design for America, UX Week, Social Good Tech Week, the Transforming Loneliness Summit, AIGA SF, and many more.
Kat has now turned her UX expertise towards combating the loneliness epidemic, by helping millions of people experience greater wellness and fulfillment through thriving platonic relationships.
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 8, 2020
I really liked this guide to staying close to friends who live far away (or ones you can't see in person because of covid-19). The ideas for deep (but not too deep) getting to know you questions and activities are fun and I look forward to doing a few of them with the people I love and miss hanging out with.
October 3, 2020
Vellos's first book, We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships, was about making and sustaining friendships, something that we have been struggling with in the US for some time now. (For anyone tempted to blame the internet for this social ill, I would say the trend toward looser, less enduring connections has been going on for much longer. I'm constantly citing Robert Putnam's brilliant Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival of American Community research on the unraveling of community, data from long before the internet went public.)
Anyway, Connected from Afar acts as an addendum that acknowledges just how many of our important relationships have gone virtual due to distance. While it was not explicitly written for our COVID-19 world, it is more relevant than ever.
The book is spare, offering a series of prompts for meaningful outreach at a pace of every other page or so. A few of the prompts felt like conversations one would have late at night in one's college dorm, but maybe that's the point: dropping one's guard long enough to engage with the kind of thought experiments that lead to more substantive dialogue.
Anyway, Connected from Afar acts as an addendum that acknowledges just how many of our important relationships have gone virtual due to distance. While it was not explicitly written for our COVID-19 world, it is more relevant than ever.
The book is spare, offering a series of prompts for meaningful outreach at a pace of every other page or so. A few of the prompts felt like conversations one would have late at night in one's college dorm, but maybe that's the point: dropping one's guard long enough to engage with the kind of thought experiments that lead to more substantive dialogue.
June 15, 2020
If you need a quick and hopeful read about how to stay close to friends while faraway (hello COVID19), this is the one for you. Kat breaks down for you how to intentionally stay connected in unique in creative ways. I also think this would make the kindest gift to send to a friend you miss and want to connect with. I love it.
February 21, 2024
I really enjoyed this book. The Introduction gives you a lot to think about regarding how disconnected we are from each other and then the rest of the book gives you ideas and tasks to do to strengthen connections between people. I haven't tried all of them yet, but I have enjoyed trying out a few of the exercises.
January 10, 2021
Vellos's first book, We Should Get Together: The Secret to Cultivating Better Friendships, was about making and sustaining friendships, something many struggling with. She wrote this as a follow up on staying connected during COVID isolation.
February 23, 2021
Reading and appreciating this feels like the first step, but the real rating should come a year from now when I reflect on whether I used any of these ideas. The ideas are good and all there, but this is a book where it's on you to make it happen.
May 28, 2020
A handbook of activities to get closer to loved ones. Practical, succinct, and beautiful. A must have.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews