Dr. Tara Narula

You know, he thankfully, I think, opened our eyes in this country to how negative loneliness can be.

and how important it is for us to cultivate social relationships for our health.

The famous study out of Harvard, Robert Waldinger's study that followed men for years, what was it that sort of translated into the best quality of life?

It was the quality of their social connections.

It wasn't anything else.

And so we have just this growing body of data and literature showing the power of social connection.

And I think

For a lot of people, you know, they think, oh, well, I need to have a big group of friends.

And so for a lot of my patients, we talk about it doesn't have to be, you know, a large group of friends.

It can be one friend that you pick up the phone and call.

It can be joining an art class because you love art.

And so there's so many outlets that we can explore to find that.

You know, I recently told the story of, again, another patient of mine who retired and he started smoking marijuana and felt very depressed, wondering where am I going with my life?

And one of his friends said, you know, Central Park is right there.

They have a group, the Central Park group that goes and picks up the garbage and trims the trees.

And we meet twice a week and he joined the group.

And he said just that one step of joining that group.

And now he does it twice a week for about an hour.

Saved him because it gave him a group of people who he could meet every week.

He was outside and he started to feel so much better about his life.