In an evening class at Stanford, the last lecture was on the mind-body connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among a few 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 VERY serious.
He continued with: "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 of "girlfriend time" helps women 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. Women share from their souls with sisters, mothers, and girl friends and evidently that is very GOOD for their health." He continued to say 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. 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 to schmooze 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..... there ya go! Let's CHEER to our friendship with our girlfriends! Evidently it's VERY good for our HEALTH!
I'm so blessed to have WONDERFUL friends and sisters who have been there for me through out my life! I KNOW that they have SAVED MY LIFE!!!! I'm hoping to be VERY Healthy here pretty soon!!! I have so many great and wonderful friends, how could I not be!!! :) (I surely hope I am as good a FRIEND in return!)
OH... and just a little CHRISTMAS update.... a few more gifts are done!!! YEAH!!!!!
How are you all doing??? I promise to get better at this....
all in good time, my dears ... all in good time!
all in good time, my dears ... all in good time!