Rockin on the River

Friday June 7,  2013

aboard the 

Princess Wenonah 

Tickets $40

Evening includes a 3 hour boat cruise, hors d'oeuvres, live entertainment provided by Jedi Mind Trip 

and silent auction tickets can be purchased at www.brownpapertickets.com or at our main office at 2806 Davenport, Saginaw.

Spending time with friends is fun, but it also yields a multitude of long-term physical and emotional health benefits. Studies show that healthy relationships make aging more enjoyable, lessen grief, and provide camaraderie to help you reach personal goals, among other things.  Maintaining positive relationships should rank up there with healthy eating and exercise as a necessary investment in your health.

Friends and Well-Being

A number of studies have highlighted the importance of friends and good relationships to health.  Here are some of the findings:

• According to surveys of women over age 60, those who are socially engaged and visit with friends and family throughout the week are happier as they age.
• Encouragement and just sharing goes a long way to boosting your will power.
• If you have a friend you consider to be happy, you are more likely to be happy and you are able to spread that happiness to the people around you. A study of 4,739 adults showed that people tend to cluster into happy or unhappy groups, and happiness appears to spread not just to those immediately inside the social group, but to their contacts as well. Having happy friends who live less than a mile away was an especially powerful predictor of happiness.
• People who see themselves as a leader in their social circle are happier than those who see themselves as outsiders - another reason why actively building relationships instead of waiting for the phone to ring is important.
• Being socially engaged leads to more positive emotions, which in turn may actually boost your body's immune system and reduce the physical signs of stress, say health experts.

The Friends You Choose Make a Difference 

While it is possible for one happy person to spread happiness to their friends, the reverse is also true - a mildly or chronically depressed friend can bring you down as well. It helps to have a diverse group of friends to lessen this impact. Think about the friends in your life. Is your support system just that-a support system? Or do you have friends in your life who undermine you? Do you have someone in your life that would be unhappy if you changed? Someone who would not like it if you lost weight, stopped drinking, went back to school, got a divorce or moved to Kansas City? Spending time with someone who is competitive with you or who you simply share a bad habit with might not be a basis for a good friendship.  

It's also important to be a good friend yourself, providing others with as many of the benefits of friendship (infectious happiness, social support, someone to confide in, food in times of crisis) as you can. It feels good to help others, and that only adds to your own happiness.