Welcome to the Simple Steps to Improved Health Challenge Day 7 Nurture Your Relationships
Reminder to choose 1 of the first two actions to work on this week starting today or whatever day you want the week to start on for you. See Day 1 for more information about the challenge.
How Does Nurturing Relationships Improve Health
There are studies that suggest that when you’re in strong relationships it helps to strengthen your immune system, can help you recover from disease, have less stress, have a greater sense of purpose, and may even lengthen your life. Additionally, people in trusting relationships have lower rates of anxiety and depression, have higher self-esteem, and greater empathy.
There was a study done on blue zones (areas of people all having good health.) In one blue zone that was studied, they saw that the people smoked and ate a lot of saturated fats. So what was going on? How were they so healthy?
That community had great support for every person. There was always someone to watch kids when someone was at work, neighbors helped when someone needed help, everyone was fed and in the evenings they gathered and socialized.
On the other side, loneliness can lead to disrupted sleep, elevated blood pressure, and increased cortisol. This is also related to greater instances of depression, poor weight management, and alcohol and drug abuse. You don’t have to be alone to be lonely. I think that is something many of us realized during the pandemic.
Let’s go back to the previous study of the blue zone where everyone was healthy. When they went back 20 years later, everything had changed. It was no longer a blue zone and people were getting sick more frequently and dying earlier. What happened?
The younger members of the community moved out to other places and the community had stopped helping and supporting everyone. The relationship and social support that had previously been there had slowly disappeared.
There is more about health and relationships here.
How to Take Action to Nurture Your Relationships
Choose to nurture your relationships. Connect with people in your life. The easiest first step is to reach out to the people you already know. Have a meal with someone from work or invite your neighbor to sit and chat at your kid’s sporting event. Maybe a Saturday morning coffee. Recently my neighbor decided to have a cut-de-sac potluck and invited everyone on the street. It never hurts to ask someone and most likely they want to connect as well.
The next option to try is to meet new people by joining a club or community event that interests you. Then you already know a subject everyone there is interested in. Take the opportunity to say hi and ask why the person decided to come to the event and you will find someone there to continue a conversation that may become a friend.
A third option is to start opening yourself to more socialization by being friendly to the people you see in everyday life like the cashier at the grocery, the librarian, your kid’s teachers and office staff, or the person walking past on your morning hike. This interaction makes them and you feel acknowledged and will increase your feel-good hormones because you will know you improved someone’s day.
Go Do it
Take the time this week to talk to someone every day. An old friend, a family member, a colleague, or another mom walking her baby. Everyone benefits from a positive friendly interaction and you never know it could turn into a lasting friendship.
Comment and let me know how you took action this week.
