You know that saying … “Cry and you cry alone. Laugh and the world laughs with you.”
You know that saying … “Cry and you cry alone. Laugh and the world laughs with you.”
Don’t have time for or feeling too tired to connect with friends? Here are 5 excellent reasons for you to pick up the phone and call that girlfriend … I often call my friends for virtual lunch when there isn’t time to get together. We munch and chat and laugh – I always feel more energized when I hang up that phone. (Now – I am talking about calling a friend, not a downer or an energy vampire!)
Health Benefits of Friendship
1. Cheering up a friend – random acts of kindness -can create something known as “helper’s high.”(endogenous opioids” internally produced chemicals that affect our brain like opium.)
2. When women tend or befriend more oxytocin is released which counters stress and produces calming effect. -UCLA Study on Friendship Among Women
3. Not having close friends and confidants is as detrimental to our health as smoking or carrying extra weight.-Nurses Health Study from Harvard Medical School(the famed!)
4. Close friends help keep your immune system strong during times of stress. -Ohio State University Researcher
(One of my favorite, friendly BLOGS is Happy Girl Musing. Terry Hernon MacDonald spent a week on this very topic – friendship. Check it out.)
5. The leading causes of premature death in the U.S. are heart disease, cancer, cirrhosis of the liver, non-car accidents, influenza and pneumonia, vehicle accidents, suicide and homicide. “All of them are tremendously influenced by social isolation, loneliness, and human fragmentation.”
-Dr. James Lynch, author, The Broken Heart: The Medical Consequence of Loneliness
Feel like a piece of burnt toast throughout the day? Or maybe your brains feel like scrambled eggs? You might be suffering from adrenal fatigue. Take our free Fatigue Questionnaire at http://fatiguebegone.com/tired_woman_quiz.htm to discover the true causes of fatigue.
BTW
– If you’d like more to smile about – from the comfort of your keyboard – please visit http://www.dogcaptions.com/ and join in our Old Friend New Friend Week Celebration and Fundraiser.Two weeks ago I brought home a big (15 lb!) bundle of taffy colored fur called “Kitty.” I’ve never had a cat before and Kitty is a fascinating and delightful addition to our family. (Velvet the dog, Peetie the worried cockatiel, Micheal and Moi.)
Last weekend a snippet of an article caught my attention and tonight I snuggled in to do some research on the topic of pets and how they make us healthy. A few highlights include:
* Petting cats or dogs increases feel good hormones, lowers blood pressure and slows the heart rate. In other words, petting is healthy for your heart!
* Want an easy, healthy stress buster? A study shows that watching fish swim can drop your blood pressure about 15 points …
* Want an easy does it way to relax and re-energize? “Walking is the biggest bang for our buck. Thirty minutes a day of walking will prevent many cases of diabetes, hypertension, and other chronic diseases.” -Surgeon General
Psst. Dog owners walk 79 percent farther in an average week than non–dog owners.
For the rest of this puuurfect story, click here ….