Dr. Lila Landowski

It's what our body does anyway.

Absolutely.

Another thing that's really great for stress as well is socialising, like actually just hanging out with people that you like.

It has to be people that you like.

If you don't like it, it's not going to be not stressful.

But when you're hanging out with people that you like, it does a lot of things.

But one of them is that you're talking about it.

So I guess it takes the fear away from whatever situation you're in because you feel safe because you're in a safe space.

And also you're releasing all of these neurochemicals, things like oxytocin.

People call it the love hormone, but it's more than that.

It's

Yes, it makes you feel closer to whoever you're talking to, but also it reduces the level of our stress hormone cortisol.

So it actually – like part of the reason why we feel better and feel less stressed is because those stress hormones go down.

Yeah.

And, you know, at the end of the day, we know that the people –

who live happiest for the longest have the best social connections.

And so really having great friendships or having just people that you trust that you can connect with really has a profound influence on your life.

We know that people who are lonely live less long.

In fact, they're about 30% more likely to die.

It's about as bad as having a pack a day of cigarettes.