How Relationships impact well-aging
👴🏼 Max, 75 and 👨🏼🦳John, 79 (Mohamed_hassan, 2017)👴🏼
Max: “John is one of my closest friends. We studied together and since back then we are close friends. He is the person I can call doesn’t matter how late it is. When we first heard first about the longest study of happiness we were quite surprised by the results, but we can approve every lesson this study gave us. Having friends and family is a blessing. So let’s dive into the impact of relationships”: (quote invented)
🌻 The longest study about happiness
Robert Waldinger leads the longest study about happiness. For over 70 years, Harvard University has been studying happiness and its development.
The study population covers more than 2000 people. The aim of the study is to observe what makes people happy and how happiness affects the ageing process.
📚 Here are the four most important lessons of happiness
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Loneliness killsConnections to family and friends make us happier
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Relationships protect our brainQualitative relationships secure the brain and memories and prevent memory decline
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Quality over quantityQualitative relationships act as a buffer for aging effects
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Satisfying relationships enhance healthPeople who are the most satisfied with their relationships at the age of 50 are healthier at the age of 80
“The people who were happiest, who stayed healthiest as they grew old, and who lived the longest were the poeple who had the warmest connections with other people.” - (TED, 2016)
As you’ve seen relationships have a huge impact on us. So take care of them!
✅ Task: Think about what relationships mean to you and what benefits they have for you.
Write it in your reflection notion page
👨👩👧👧 What defines a qualitative relationship?
This is Robert Waldinger, the head of the longest study on happiness. In this video he tells us which relationships are the most important. Have fun!
❤️ Takeaways The power of love
- Relationships promote our health and happiness
- Have deep relationship not many
- Loneliness is a threat for our well-being
- Take care of your relationships
(Dandelion_tea, 2022)🏁 Goals: The power of love
This space is for your personal goals setting.
The aim is for you to think of at least 2 goals that are in line with the main questions below.
After you have written down your personal goals, you should think of at least one task for each goal that you want to achieve this month.
At the end of the month, you can evaluate your actions and goals using the template below.
Below you will find some examples and ideas
The main questions are: Who are the most important people in your life? How do you take care of your relationships?
✅ Tasks:
- Write down at least 2 goals
- Write down at least one to-do for every goal
- Evaluate your success after one month
💡 Some ideas:
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I would like to have more contact with my family/friends
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I want to take better care of my relationships
👨👩👧👧 Call my family once a week
👨👩👧👧 Check in with best friends 2 times a week
💓 Surprise my most important persons with something they love
💓 Say to your most important pers how much they mean to me
✅
What did you accomplish this month?
🤯
Where did you fall short this month?
🎉 Congratulations you finished the second of four sections of “Well-Aging: Embracing a good life”
Move on to “The healing power of sports” 🚀
