The number-one predictor of health, happiness, and a long life is creating and maintaining healthy relationships, according to a study going back to the 1930s..
Interacting and doing things with friends, family–and romantic partners if we so choose–is the secret to success in life.
It clicked when I read this week the Internet article quoting research about how having positive relationships inoculates a person from ill health.
Talking with a friend can be better than taking a happy pill.
Having social support in the form of friends, family, and romantic partners is the way to go.
The participants with rock-solid relationships had better health and a lot of them lived to be in their nineties.
Even when I was employed at HealthCentral I made the case for making friends and finding your tribe of kindred spirits.
It’s true that a friend–not a romantic partner–can be a soul mate. And who’s to say we can’t have more than one soul mate linked to different needs each person fulfills in our lives?
After reading the news article about how social support and relationships are linked to better health, happiness, and a longer life I thought: “Sign me up!”
Imagine spending six hours with a true friend and feeling incredibly happy doing so.
I say: Go for It–because emotional riches count more than money.
Left of the Dial 