Resolved to Get Healthy in 2008?

Don't Forget These Friendship Exercises

If improving your health tops the list of your New Year’s resolutions, you probably already plan to exercise more and eat better. But don’t overlook another important factor in overall well-being – friendship.

Studies show that people with strong relationships and social networks are happier, healthier, and more successful. In fact, research by the Gallup Organization indicates that friendship between spouses accounts for 70 percent of satisfaction in a marriage, and friendships at work significantly impact job satisfaction.

“Any plan to improve your health in 2008 should include some work on relationships,” says USA Weekend columnist and relationship expert Dennie Hughes. “Strong friendships are as important to our health as eating right, getting enough sleep, and exercising regularly.”

Hughes offers the following advice for building your relationship health in the New Year:

Know Your Friends’ Roles

Like the song says, it’s a good thing to “Get by with a little help from (your) friends.” But, Hughes says, don’t expect all your needs to be fulfilled by one very best bud.

“If you’re like most people, you have multiple friends who serve different roles in your life – from confidante to confidence builder, cheerleader to collaborator. It’s perfectly okay to compartmentalize in this way,” Hughes says. “Depending on one friend to be everything puts a lot of pressure on that person,” she adds. “Look at a friendship for what it is. Know that person’s role in your life and maintain the friendship at the level that you’re both comfortable with.”

Experience the Power of Staying in Touch with Friends

"The mental and emotional boost from interacting with friends is powerful. Staying in touch with an old friend and talking about ‘back in the day’ escapades can remind you that there is more to you than just ‘soccer mom.’ Talking with a new friend who you don’t share a history with gives you a great perspective on how others see you now and the opportunity to change if you don’t like the feedback,” Hughes notes. “Just be sure the friends you choose to keep are as willing as you are to be a positive influence in some aspect: according to a new study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine, friends who depend on you to be there for them but don’t give back supportive energy when you need them can cause a 44 percent greater spike in your blood pressure!”

It’s healthy to connect with friends regularly, both old and new, to learn what they’re up to and share what’s going on with you today. As a matter of fact, according to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, connecting with someone from the past you haven’t spoken to in ages – or with someone you just met – offers up great mood-lifting potential.

But success in friendship health requires simple ways for friends to keep up with each other. Web sites like Classmates.com make it easier to stay up to date with friends. Creating a free membership enables you to easily update people on what you’ve been up to, and find friends not only from high school, but also college, work and military affiliations. There are more than 50 million members, so you are likely to find some familiar friends to stay in touch with.

Because Classmates.com isn’t a “dating site,” approaching a person you have something in common with through the site “takes the weirdness out of contacting someone.”

Finally, you can extend your network of friends and strengthen bonds with current friends by trying to get to know your friends’ friends. “I like to host a ‘meet my friends party’,” Hughes says. Invite your friends to a party and ask them to bring along some of their friends whom you don’t already know. Not only do you expand your social network with people you are likely to already have something in common with – your friend’s friends – it’s also interesting to see your friends through someone else’s eyes.

Courtesy of ARAcontent


Published in Networking Today, January 2008