Braden Hall

So the idea here is goals are good.

You can always decide that you're going to say hello to so many people on the street, that you're going to get together with your best friend, you know, so many times a month.

These things will definitely help you along this pathway.

It's not great.

And in fact, the best thing that we can possibly do for our health and well-being that we're increasingly realizing through an enormous body of research is to cultivate warm relationships of all kinds.

If we do not, if we fail to do so, then what we find is that people have increased relationships.

risk of mortality, of greater morbidity, these sorts of negative things that we all want to avoid in our lives.

So as much as we pursue things even like solitude, which we may view as time to ourselves, healthy with respect to just giving that time to ourselves, I think that we need to push ourselves to connect with others

understanding that the health benefits are just tremendous.

When it comes to our social connections, often it's easier to say no or to avoid connecting with others because we want to avoid the social risk.

The idea is just as when we work out physically, over time it gets easier and easier.

It's the same deal with our social relationships.

The more we exercise our social muscle, the more comfortable we are in social settings.

It just becomes easier.

Yeah, exactly.

And be kind to yourself.

I mean, we're all different.

I may want to meet with five people this month and go for coffee.

Other people, maybe it's just that one person reconnecting with them.

But it all is positive for our health and well-being.