Vivek Murthy

The third thing we can do is to look for opportunities to serve.

So it turns out that service is one of the most powerful antidotes to loneliness.

And there's a reason for that.

That's rooted in our biology.

Because when we're chronically lonely, what happens is we experience an elevation in our threat level.

We also shift our focus inward because we feel unsafe.

Service shortcuts that mechanism.

It shifts the focus from us onto someone else in the context of a positive interaction.

It also reaffirms for us that we have value to the world.

The service in an age like this might look like delivering food to a coworker who, you know, is struggling to telework and homeschool their kids.

It can even look like just offering to virtually babysit for five or 10 minutes.

Maybe I'm talking about something I might enjoy.

Hey, but, you know, I know that as a parent that when somebody else calls.

and gives you just five or 10 minutes because they're entertaining your children.

And when you can just sit down and breathe for the five or 10 minutes, that time is like gold.

All of this is just to say that if we look around us, we'll find that there are many opportunities to serve.

And these are all simple pathways that we can take, thinking about the quantity of time, the quality of time, the opportunities for service that can help strengthen our connection, even though we're not able to physically see each other right now.

Yeah, that's such an important question.

You know, my wife and I are both doctors.

I'll be honest with you.