So what can you do to reap the benefits of human contact? Like most people who live in our fast-paced, high stress, individualistic, Western society, chances are that you could improve your social skills and intimate friendships -- not only for interpersonal benefits, but for physiological benefits as well. Friends are excellent stress busters because they provide support, assistance in times of need, and contribute to overall feelings of contentment and acceptance. Here is a list of ways you can improve your social life, and ultimately, your overall health: 5 Ways To Boost Your Social Life
Renew old friendships
Arrange to do a fun activity. It will give you time to catch up, reconnect, alleviate some stress, and get away from the demands of work or the dull routines of daily life. Engage in more activities that make you feel happy. The bottom line: be creative and get others involved.
Get a romantic partner
Studies show that married men live longer than unmarried counterparts. Love and emotional support is priceless. Also, men tend to feel more comfortable opening up about certain issues to their partners, and bouncing ideas off the other half sometimes sheds new light on problems.
Spend time with family
Your family can be your nearest, dearest and most consistent means of support. Whether you're having coffee with your parents or playing with your children, reconnecting with loved ones will help you feel more attached to a consistent, familiar and loving community.
Meet new people, make new connections, learn new skills and increase leisure time in your life. Your body will thank you for the sense of self-worth provided through group activities.
Listen and learn
Talking with others can help reduce the burden of coping with stressor's alone, and can increase feelings of support between individuals. Also, actively listening and participating in conversation will teach you new facts about the important people in your life and help you meet challenges together. The more you know about the people around you, the better you can relate and assist one another.
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Balance all aspects of life, including social and leisure time.
So if you work day in, day out, with no time for yourself to hang out or to chill out with your family, you will likely suffer an emotional or physical burnout because you aren't meeting your social or emotional needs. In fact, the easiest, cheapest way to accentuate your health is to maintain close friendships and strong social support networks.
Benefits of a good social life and strong support network:
- Less likely to get sick with strong social connections
- Lower risk of dying after a heart attack, and following a stroke, significant functional improvements are more likely.
- Less likely to engage in unhealthy habits such as alcohol and drug abuse, a sedentary lifestyle, a poor diet, or neglect regular medical exams and the early warning signs of illness.
- Caring and supportive individuals generally encourage better care of their bodies, and decreases the need to turn to unhealthy habits for emotional or physical gratification.
- Having numerous friends and acquaintances decreases stress, and inevitably alters body chemistry.
- Releasing stress by expressing yourself to others and having your emotional and psychological needs met balances body chemistry, and may reduce high blood pressure and other medical problems.
Outcomes Through Interaction:
- conversation = information
knowledge and social exchange
- enhance elaboration and retention
- increase motivation
- negotiation of understanding
- clarification of understanding
- team building
- discovery
- exploration
- closure
- increase participation
- develop communication
- receive feedback
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