“Love is that micro-moment of warmth and connection that you share with another living being.”
- Barbara Fredrickson
Though this spring has been like nothing I have ever encountered before, it has also given me so much. It is amazing how many people I have met because of it. Maybe not physically but online. It might be that these connections have become even more meaningful and deep, because the encounter has been longer than a brief coffee or a lunch break. They have also been ones to stay and we are constantly talking via for example social media.
One meaningful connection has been Global Happiness and Healing Coach Kyla Mitsunaga. Kyla’s warmth and kindness are something unbelievably amazing and empowering.
Kyla is also the one who introduced me to an equally amazing human being Verena Rentrop also known as The Chocolate Angel! Her story is amazing and the perfect example of micro moments of love so I was honored to interview her for this blog text. Verena lives here in Finland so after connecting on social media we went for a safe distance walk at the beautiful Pitkäkoski reservation area (a river in Vantaa, Finland).
Now, you may think who and what is The Chocolate Angel?
Let me tell you by first explaining how The Chocolate Angel was born:
”Over 10 years ago I started one of my regular business trips from Germany to Finland. While walking through duty-free area I decided to buy a few chocolate boxes which I brought the next day to the office. We had already open working spaces, so I would walk around the whole office, approached every single person and offered them to choose a piece of chocolate. Over the next decade, the small gesture is still the same. The impact, it has transformed my life, I became the Chocolate Angel.” Says Verena.
How would you describe the moment you give someone the chocolate and your eyes meet?
”Something really special happens when I walk up to people, it is a very intense, almost intimate moment. It works in several stages, approaching a stranger with a big smile triggers a smile in return. Then I open the box and I can see the overflow of emotions in the eyes, followed by expressions like: “Wow, this is for me, really? May I take one?”
When they start to look around the box to find a childhood favorite, that’s when people are sometimes overcome from positive memories of all sorts. For me to be the instigator and observer of this chain reaction is a blessing, every single time.” Verena tells me.
In my studies to become a Positive Psychology Practitioner we learned that Barbara Fredrickson* studies love and micro moments of love, also known as positive resonance. She describes love as a micro-moment of warmth and connection that you share with another living being. a sense of security and real-time connection must be present for these moments to occur.
How did you come across the concept of “micro moments of love”?
”A few years ago I was invited to tell my story at a gathering of SPPY Suomen Positiivisen Psykologian Yhdistys, the invitation came after some of their members met the Chocolate Angel at the CoPassion conference in Helsinki. Ritva Enäkoski, the President of the Association continued after me, reflecting in Finnish on what I told before.
Even so I didn’t understood a word, but her expression ‘Micro-moments of Love’ stood out, especially as those were the only words I could understand. I later told my best friend and ‘creative wizard’ about this moment, it became the tagline as it described so perfectly what I do.”
I feel these moments for example when I deliver a donation to someone in need and our (almost always watery) eyes meet, when I pick up something someone has dropped by accident and hand it back to them and our eyes meet, when I look at my children when they are playing and our eyes meet; as if they were searching for something; perhaps that micro moment of love? When I complement a friend or even a stranger. The feeling is almost unimaginable.
To me micro moments of love are something I always knew existed but could not explain. Something simply amazing. No wonder I love to help and interact with people since such a thing really exists!
A special thanks to the lovely Chocolate Angel for sharing her micro moments of love with us ❤
I wish you all delightful micro moments of love!
With empowering regards
Anita @rimpissa
| Future Empowerer |
Sources
Joylla | Pauliina Piippo, lecture 2020
Fredrickson, B. (2013). Love 2.0: How our supreme emotion affects everything we feel, think, do, and become. Hudson st Press.
* Barbara Lee Fredrickson is an American professor in the department of psychology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of Psychology. (Wikipedia)
Comments