Again, it’s the relationships!
The research indicates that strong family and social ties improve both your health and longevity.
Time magazine, February 2, 2017, has an article by Alexandra Sifferlin titled, “Longevity: How Family Ties Keep You Going, in Sickness and in Health.”
What were the findings?
- Families that eat together are healthier.
- A warm parent-child link (bonding) is linked to a lower risk of serious disease as an adult.
- People with siblings tend to have better mental health.
- Thoughtful conversations with a spouse in which the partner is responsive are linked to better health.
- This relationship link is more than physical support and help.
It seems that our relationships impact us more than we know—in ways we often cannot measure very well.
Relationships take time and planning
The deeper issue here is that relationships take time and planning. One of the biggest frustrations in my life is making time for all the relationships I would like to have and still have time to write, speak, exercise, and do fun activities. Time-management books, not surprisingly, address the importance of prioritizing our use of time. I agree. But the real world of survival often demands that work is first priority in how we use that time.
In much of the research on aging, one’s ability to age well has a lot to do with the ability to maintain a relationship network and to have a life rich in meaning and purpose on which to draw. And that requires constant juggling of the nebulous gift we all have: time.
If you have both relationships and time mastered, please tell me how you did that!
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