When times are hard remember who your friends are. You know that an hour spent with a good friend can give you a real boost; and there is plenty of scientific research to tell you why friends are so good for you!
Happiness is Catching
Yes, it’s true, you can catch happiness from your friends. Isn’t that wonderful? Researchers at California University and Harvard measured the happiness of almost 5000 people over a period of 20 years. What they found was that when an individual was happy it spread through their network of friends, and then their friends’ friends! And what’s more the effect could last for up to a whole year.
Check out Emotions Can Be Contagious for more on this.
Women’s Friendships
You will probably have heard of the flight/fight response, when our bodies respond to a stressful situation by releasing adrenalin. The adrenalin rush is to help us either fight our way out or run like the clappers. Well, some women scientists have looked again at this original research which was carried out only on men.
They have discovered that when under stress women release the hormone oxytocin. Oxytocin is sometimes called the ‘love’ hormone. It’s the hormone that helps women bond with their newborn babies, for example.
Turn to a Friend
When we women are under stress we are actually helped by being with our friends. We like to talk things through. We’re not gossiping, we need to talk, we’re managing our stress. For years women’s talk has been downgraded as ‘gossip’. Now you know what to say next time that accusation is levelled at you.
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Posted on February 14th, 2022 by Jane
