Health Benefits Of Friends

In addition to filling up your social calendar, forming and maintaining quality friendships can have tremendous benefits on your general health. Overall, good friends are synonymous with better health. When you have a network of friends, regardless of how big or small that network is, you have other people in your life that will be there alongside you for most of life’s ups and downs.

Emotional Benefits

Your friends will be their during good times to share in your celebrations and positive life events, and they will also be there in bad times to help support you and help you through those difficult moments. In these ways, your friends are good for your emotional health. During good times, your friends provide companionship, which can increase your sense of belonging and help bring more purpose into your life. During life’s difficult moments, your friends provide comfort and support, which can help prevent depression and loneliness.

Boost Your Happiness

When you have friends in your life who share some of your interests and likes, you are able to pursue those interests together. The joy that comes from pursuing your hobbies is often amplified when someone close to you shares in that joy. Additionally, you are more likely to get out and participate in social activities if you have friends to do that with. While some people have no problem with going to a movie, sporting event or other social arena alone, others prefer to go with a friend or group of friends.

For those individuals, many would rather avoid the activity altogether than go it alone. Having friends can help motivate you to get up off the couch and get out of the house. Oftentimes, people can fall into a rut where they live the same boring routine day after day. But when they have friends that encourage them to break that routine and get out and about, they often experience an elevation in happiness and an overall improvement in mood.

Decrease Stress

Most health professionals agree that having friends is an effective way to reduce stress. This is obvious when we think of the benefits of having a shoulder to lean on during difficult times. But maintaining quality friendships can lower stress in other ways as well. People who have close friendships are generally better able to handle stress and confront it head on. This may be a result of the improved confidence that comes with having friends. Individuals who do not have friends tend to be more withdrawn, isolated and insecure, while those with friends often display more self-confidence, are more outgoing and are more secure in their own abilities. These attributes all help to combat stress.

Healthy Lifestyle Choices

Having friends can do wonders for you physical health also. People who develop and maintain lasting friendships are less likely to experience health issues associated with added weight gain, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Though the reason for the correlation is unclear, many believe it to be a result of the mind-body connection, in which emotional happiness results in improved overall physical health.

Others believe it may be due to the fact that good friends are more likely to encourage the avoidance of unhealthy behaviors, such as excessive drinking, drug abuse, a sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits. For example, individuals with friends are more likely to get up and get out, rather than sit in front of the television. Over time, these little habits add up to more exercise and overall better lifestyle habits.