Welcome to 2024! As we begin a new year, many of us are thinking about how to kickstart it on a positive note. One common question that arises is, “What can I do this year to improve my health?” While pondering this question, one key health hack came to mind: cultivating healthy relationships. You may wonder, “What does that have to do with physical health?” Well, let’s explore that together.
We Are Still Social Beings (Even in 2024!)
Humans are social animals. For much of history, people lived in large, multi-generational family groups, stayed close to where they were raised, and communicated in person. Modern society, technology, and culture have changed all that. Even with last year’s explosion with AI LLMs (and the intelligent bots released such as Pi, Replika, etc.), it’s much easier to feel isolated despite the constant connection that technology provides (not to mention the potential security concerns that come with some for-profit companies collecting an “emotional fingerprints” of individual subscribers).
This lack of genuine human connections has serious implications for our health. Studies show that human interaction is essential to the physical, mental, and emotional growth and well-being of all people. Even babies that are not touched, picked up, and interacted with can develop behavioral and mental disorders that follow them all their lives. Without real, in-person relationships, human well-being suffers.
Conversely, strong relationships bring many benefits. Health benefits of strong friendships include:
- lower stress
- quicker healing
- healthier behaviors
- a sense of purpose and connection
- a longer life
It is well-established that high-quality relationships can increase your lifespan, help you heal faster, and keep disease and illness at bay. Improving and increasing the size of your social circle not only keeps you more active, but the support your friends, family, colleagues and even acquaintances provide can make the difference between recovering from serious health setbacks and not. Yes, not just infants but all of us, including older people, can fail to thrive without healthy relationships. We need other people in our lives to be happy, healthy, contributing members of society.
Digital Relationships vs Real-Life Connections
Some might ask, isn’t being digitally connected as good as being connected in person? While this is a very deep question that we will explore further in future blog posts, we suggest that there are benefits that real-life, in-person relationships produce that digital-only relationships cannot fully replicate.
In addition, constant digital stimulation, while designed to keep people more closely connected and in communication, often has the opposite effect. We have all experienced (and most of us ourselves have at times been the very) people who pay way more attention to their phones than they do to the person sitting across from them at the dinner table, or next to them on a road trip. People need one-on-one communication. They need to engage with other people on a deeper level than technology and the limitations of Zoom can provide. We need real relationships, in real life.
So, here’s our health hack for 2024: find a buddy, step outside, engage in a meaningful conversation, and give family and loved ones hugs. We promise, you’ll feel better for it! Here’s to a wonderful start to 2024, filled with healthy relationships and thriving well-being.
