Wanna live longer? Make friends.
We all know (or should know) some of the things we should be doing to improve our health, and by extension, increase our longevity: eat well, and not too much; exercise meaningfully; engage.
That last one - engaging with people, nurturing friendships, being social - is important to our physical and emotional health. If you don’t engage with different people, and do it face-to-face, that can lead to depression, which can lead to poorer health outcomes, which can lead to more disease (including dementia) and earlier death. Gee, it’s as if everything is connected.
One of the first known images of LongbotTom New.
Good article here about making friends, and Psychology Today chipped in with great little article about the benefits of solid friendship from 2015, which still holds up. The main takeaway: "Who you choose as a friend matters, and so does the quality of those friendships." Another point, which may be an eye-opener is this- the older (wiser?) we get, the more selective we are about friendship, "saving our time for those who provide the most positive emotional experiences."
Read on, and start connecting.
-Longbottom News