Girlfriends Are Good for your Health!
“I just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection – the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker, the head of psychiatry at Stanford, said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman, whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.
At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.
Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically, this quality “girlfriend time” helps us to create more serotonin – a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well-being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf? Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.
Women do it all the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.
There’s a tendency to think that when we are “exercising,” we are doing something good for our bodies but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged. That’s just not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!
So every time you hang out and shmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. So let’s toast to our friendships with our girlfriends. Evidently it’s very good for our health.”
I love your newsletter! I get several other newsletters, but this is the one I really look forward to reading. Today’s topic “Girlfriends are Good for Your Health” is right on. A day with friends (girlfriends), my daughters-in-law, my sisters (including sisters-in-law who are really like my sisters), or my nieces lifts my spirits and believe it or not, gives me greater energy. My husband doesn’t understand my need for female companionship. BTW – I have 3 sons and so far 3 grandsons, so I have to reach out to get some girl time.
I am just happier with my girlfriends. The support and laughs is hard to beat for stress relief! Girlfriends rock!!!
My favorite line: “spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.” I’d much rather go out to coffee or lunch with friends than go to the gym — thanks for making me feel good about my choices!
don’t want to think about living without my gal pals…..
Excellent news! As a writer, I spend way too much time at my desk. Now, when I take girlfriend breaks, I’ll know I’m not only having fun and not wasting time at all, but getting that serotonin flowing!
Love it! Could not agree more! That is why my sis and I created a board game just for women! (What’s a DAME to do?!) We need that time together to maintain our sanity. I really like the idea that it’s dangerous NOT to hang with our gal pals. Thanks for the article!
I have always felt that spending time with girlfriends was time well spent. We support & nurture each other. We wipe away tears, pick each other up when we have fallen, offer our shoulder, & surround each other in the protective cocoon of love. How wonderful it is to learn from a physician, that which we’ve felt all along!
I could not agree more…I could not survive without my gal pal relationships… they keep me sane, on-course and lift my spirits like no man can. I love my husband and sons – but they can’t fill this spot!
How wonderful to affirm my feelings that being with my friends and planning activities is so important. I know that when I am out of touch for a while I just do not feel right. My friends are brilliant, beautiful, and so wise. They each have very specific talents and skills. They were ALL there to help when I had my knee replacement surgeries. I feel most fortuante to have each of these women in my life!!!!
I’ve read this before but I can’t find the source – the Stanford professor who was speaking. Do you know who it was?