Be Social and Improve Your Health
In today’s bustling, hustling, often chaotic world, an act as seemingly simple as socializing with friends and family can quickly become complicated. Though an integral part of everyday life, being social has gradually begun to fall by the wayside for many of us, taken over primarily by work and related obligations. We tend to forget how important being social actually is until we stop one day and realize that we’ve lost friends or inadvertently lost contact with loved ones.
The fact of the matter is that remaining social throughout our adult years is more important than many of us know, that it’s good for our health, both mental and physical. People who describe themselves as social are more active, report feeling happier in general, and typically have stronger, healthier hearts than those who refer to themselves as loners or homebodies.
Being social allows us to open up in essential ways, gives us the otherwise missed opportunity to share in a random laugh or smile. We feel happy with ourselves and therefore feel more content with our partners, more satisfied with life overall. We argue and fight less frequently when we enjoy friendly relationships with people outside of marriage. Fewer stressful interactions lend themselves to a decreased risk of heart attack and high blood pressure as well, doubling the many benefits of getting out more for the mere fun of it.
In order to ensure that we’re providing ourselves the ideal circumstances in which to socialize and reap all of the associated benefits, we must learn to stay away from negative thinking and the tendency to remain in isolation. It’s completely normal for someone who has endured negative social experiences to crave solitude, but escaping the outside world entirely is rarely the answer to any of our major problems.
As humans, we tend to seek out and pursue approval, acceptance, and socialization. Even when times are hard and our circumstances prove less than ideal, we must remember that many new things come along when we least expect them. Should we receive the odd invitation to go out for a walk, for example, and we pass it by, we may be missing out on a bigger opportunity than we know at the time. So take the time to come up with new and exciting ideas, plan spontaneous trips, and look forward to tomorrow with optimism. You never know what sorts of surprises lie in store for you when you open yourself to the outside world and all that it has to offer.
