Axios Finish Line: The most important ingredient for happiness
By: Mike Allen, Erica Pandey and Jim VandeHei
Date: 26 April 2023
“Eighty-five years ago, researchers at Harvard embarked on a decades-long study to figure out what really drives happiness, health and longevity.
- The results are in.
🖼️ The big picture: It’s close relationships with family and friends — not wealth, exercise or success at work — that bring us the most joy and even lengthen our lives.
- Fun fact: When the Harvard study began in 1938, researchers selected 724 young people to follow throughout their lives. That group included former President John F. Kennedy, Harvard notes.
⚡ Flashback: As we’ve reported, Americans value family and work — but friendship often falls behind. Many of us have few or no close confidants.
- On top of that, there’s a growing group of Americans who are aging without a spouse or a partner, any children or siblings.
What to do: Think about improving your “social fitness,” CNBC reports.
- It’s not enough to just let romantic and familial relationships or friendships develop on their own. These need care, attention and exercise.
Here are three tips, from earlier Finish Lines:
- ☎️ Check in. We way underestimate how much the simplest text or call means to our friends, family members and colleagues.
- ⏳ Find the hours. It takes about 90 hours to advance from casual pals to good friends, and it takes more than 200 hours to become confidants, research shows.
- 🔙 Go back in time. Our anxiety can prevent us from reaching back out to an old friend with whom we’ve lost touch. But reviving those dormant ties can do us a lot of good.”
Source:
https://www.axios.com/newsletters/axios-finish-line-43c0b94b-30f1-4cdf-ae64-797c1361a8d2.html
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