Give Your Social Health a Decent Workout

Being social and having friends carries many psychological and health benefits. Friendship protects us against disease as well as cognitive decline, allows us to be more engaged with the tasks that we have to do, and helps us become more embedded within, and trusting of, the wider community within which we live.

Another study found that having weak social ties is as harmful to our health as being an alcoholic and twice as harmful as obesity. Sit with that for a second: Having poor social connections is as bad as being an alcoholic and twice as bad as being obese.

provision of eight social benefits

Both the singing and the hobby classes also showed significant improvements in physical and mental health, as well as in satisfaction with life; the effect seemed to be driven by a sense of bonding to the group as a whole rather than being anything to do with individual friendships established within the groups.

Put the other way around, nothing is scarier to humans than isolation. Isolated people have not only their physical security threatened, but their mental security as well. Because instinctively, we are well aware that we cannot live alone. As a consequence, we are always longing for a strong “connection” with other people. … Do you understand what