Our guest speaker is **Dr. Taylor West**, a Visiting Research Fellow at the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex and a Postdoctoral researcher at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. *Connecting with strangers does more than boost one's happiness, but may play an important role in building kind, inclusive and connected communities. This interactive talk is designed to share the psychological research on the benefits of connecting with strangers, help individuals identify and overcome barriers, and learn practical techniques for starting and maintaining conversations. Attendees can expect to learn the science behind social connection with strangers, and gain confidence putting this into practice by connecting with other attendees via guided exercises and discussions.* Taylor completed her PhD in Barbara Fredrickson's Positive Emotions and Psychophysiology Lab, where she studied micro-moments of positive connection during everyday social interactions, particularly those with strangers. Here's a great article about some of the topics we'll be exploring in case you're interested in reading beforehand: [https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_loving_moments_with_strangers_carry_lasting_benefits](https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_loving_moments_with_strangers_carry_lasting_benefits) As we pay for the hire of the hall, donations are really valued to help our charity group continue. The suggested amount is £5 but less is appreciated too, and everyone is warmly welcomed to join so don't worry at all if you can't donate. 😊 **We recommend you also RSVP by officially joining the 10 Keys Group here** [https://actionforhappiness.org/groups/brighton](https://actionforhappiness.org/groups/brighton) . We can then send you additional info about this and other events and related resources.

Description supplied by the event organiser.