How Connections Keep Us Alive

The Maximal Life

How often do you find yourself canceling plans with friends and loved ones because you are too busy or too tired from work? While it may feel as though you are keeping your priorities in line with your goals, neglecting your personal relationships can cause serious professional ramifications. Social isolation and lack of authentic human connectedness, have been well-established as risk factors for early mortality. Technological advances, which are designed specifically to connect people, are leaving us more isolated and lonely than ever before. Social media merely provides the illusion of being connected to more people, but these types of relationships are deceptively superficial, and leave us feeling increasingly separated.

Diminishing health, as a result of isolation, doesn’t necessarily require being alone. You can be surrounded by people and still feel separate and disconnected. The isolation and loneliness that contributes to diminished health is based on perceived isolation and loneliness, and not actually with how exposed the individuals are to social situations. We have the power to boost our health and happiness by making an effort to enjoy our relationships with the people in our lives. When you open your thoughts, feelings, and experiences to the people around you, you invite them to do the same. The more effort you put into cultivating meaningful relationships in your life, the happier, the healthier and the LONGER you will live!