THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRESS & DISEASE

THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN STRESS AND DISEASE. Why we should hang out with our girlfriends.

 

WOW! They Teach this at Stanford.  It's long, but please read on!

In an evening class at Stanford, the last lecture was on the mind-body
connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker
(head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of
... the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married
to a woman, whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do
for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.
At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems
that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life
experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time" helps us to
create more serotonin - a neurotransmitter that helps combat
depression and can create a general feeling of well being.

Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around
activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they
feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs?
Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf?
Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.

Women do it all of the time.. We share from our souls with our
sisters/mothers/cousins/girlfriends and evidently that is very good for our health. He
said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our
general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are
doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with
friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively
engaged—not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and
maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as
dangerous to our physical health as smoking!

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat
yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something
good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo… let's
toast to our friendship with our girlfriends.. Evidently it’s very
good for our health.

Thanks to all the ladies in my life who have helped me stay healthy, happy and feeling very loved.

Life isn't about surviving the storm; but how you dance in the rain.

Forward this to all your girlfriends – and stay in touch with them.