Jancee Dunn
CNA/THE NEW YORK TIMES – All types of relationships – whether it’s familial, romantic, friendship or work-related, are crucial elements of living a good life. This year, you might want to try out this six-day challenge in hopes of a happier 2023.
DAY 1: TAKE STOCK OF YOUR RELATIONSHIPS
In 1938, researchers at Harvard set out to learn what makes a person thrive. They recruited 724 participants and tracked their lives, from childhood to final days.
Now, 85 years later, the study expanded to three generations and over 1,300 descendants of the original subjects. From the data, one clear finding has emerged: Strong relationships are what make for a happy life.
In a new book The Good Life: Lessons From The World’s Longest Scientific Study Of Happiness, professor of psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and the study’s fourth director Robert Waldinger and associate director of the study and a psychology professor at Bryn Mawr College Marc Schulz have distilled the study’s insights.
If you do one thing this year to ensure your health and happiness, the authors maintain, find the time to nurture and develop relationships. “Social fitness” is just as crucial as physical fitness, said Professor Waldinger, who added that neglected relationships can atrophy like muscles.
“Our social life is a living system and it needs exercise,” he said. “It’s a choice you make to invest in, week by week, year by year – one that has huge benefits.”
The Harvard study is far from the only one to have found a link between our relationships and happiness. Ample research shows that people who are more socially connected live longer and are more protected against stress, depression, and declines in memory
and language.
Loneliness, on the other hand, damages our physical health. “I believe loneliness is one of the defining public health concerns of our time,” Surgeon General Vivek Murthy wrote in an email.
Today, you’ll identify areas of your life in which you’d like to be more connected. Don’t get hung up on the number of friends, Professor Waldinger said. It’s the quality of your relationships, not the quantity.
While adult friendships require effort, happiness is not out of reach if you are shy or introverted, Professor Waldinger said. You can engage with others in settings focussed on things you care about. Try small, controlled activities like a knitting group, hiking or working in a community garden.
People often assume it’s too late for them to build relationships, Professor Waldinger said, but that’s never the case. He said The Good Life had many examples of people who made connections later in life, like a lonely 68-year-old who joined a gym after he retired. Three months later, he had more friends than ever before.
DAY 2: THE SECRET POWER OF THE EIGHT-MINUTE PHONE CALL
Think of a person you love: Someone you miss, someone you wish you connected with more often.
Send that person a quick text asking to chat on the phone for eight minutes – ideally today, but if not, schedule it for sometime this week.
After the eight minutes are up, decide together when your next such catch-up will be, and then honour your time commitment and sign off promptly (unless your friend is having some sort of crisis, in which case, it’s good that you got in touch anyway). Hang up and enjoy that little glow of well-being.
Professor Waldinger said most busy people “tend to think that in some unspecified future we’ll have a ‘time surplus’, where we’ll be able to connect with old friends”. That may never materialise, he said, so pick up the phone and invest the time right now.
A study of 240 adults in 2021 found that when participants received brief phone calls a few times a week, their levels of depression, loneliness and anxiety were “rapidly reduced”, compared with people who didn’t receive a call.
As Professor Waldinger wrote in his book, “a few adjustments to our most treasured relationships can have real effects on how we feel, and on how we feel about our lives – a gold mine of vitality that we are not paying attention to”.
DAY 3: SMALL TALK HAS BIG BENEFITS
As often as you can today, Professor Waldinger said, “seek out and notice opportunities for friendly moments of uplift”.
Ask your supermarket checkout person how her day is going. Comment on a stranger’s cute baby (few people can resist talking about their babies).
Your loose network of casual acquaintances, and even strangers, known collectively as “weak ties”, might not seem important, but it is. Brief but warm exchanges have a direct effect on happiness, Professor Waldinger said.
These kinds of minute interactions can affect your mood and energy throughout the day, and ongoing research begun in the 1970s has shown that they contribute to a greater sense of well-being.
Yes, making small talk can be awkward. But people tend to like us more than we presume. This is what researchers termed, in a 2018 study, a “liking gap”.
“Our studies suggest that after people have conversations,” they wrote, “they are liked more than they know.”
Weak ties often have different knowledge from those in our immediate social circle, said assistant professor of management at the Wisconsin School of Business at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Stav Atir. Assistant Professor Atir led a study in 2022 that suggested that people underestimate the potential for learning from these interactions.
Think about times over the past 10 years or so when you’ve been on a plane or train and struck up a conversation with someone you didn’t know. Did they say something that stuck with you? Even the most fleeting connection can have an impact, said Alisha Ali, an associate professor of applied psychology at New York University.
“It doesn’t need to be something that appears deep for it to be deeply felt,” she said.
“You never know what a given encounter will reveal.”
DAY 4: THE IMPORTANCE OF WORK FRIENDS
Reach out to someone at work – or, if you’re a student, at school – whom you would like to know better.
If you’re retired or a parent who does not work outside the home, you can still participate: Consider your “workplace” anywhere you might go regularly: A class, an organisation where you volunteer or even a coffee shop.
Here are four ways to forge new workplace connections:
For someone you don’t know: One of the best ways to foster a workplace friendship is to follow up about something that a person mentioned in a meeting or a group setting, said friendship expert and the author of The Business Of Friendship Shasta Nelson.
“Later, you can say, ‘How did that 5K race go that you said you were going to do?’ Or ‘I hope your daughter isn’t feeling sick anymore’.”
For someone you’d like to know better: Invite the person to do something casual that only takes a few minutes, along the lines of: “I need to clear my head. Do you want to take a quick walk around the block with me?”
Or give a specific, thoughtful compliment, suggested Gena Cox, an organisational psychologist and executive coach based in Clearwater, Florida.
If you work remotely: Show up early on a call and make conversation before everyone gets down to business. Give a co-worker a shoutout for their contribution, Professor Waldinger said, or ask them about an interesting object in their background or about their pet dozing behind them. You can also message them and request a quick, friendly chat, Nelson said.
If you’re a manager: Before a meeting starts, try a few icebreakers: “What was your first job?” or “What was the worst advice you’ve ever received?” These sorts of exercises “create conditions where friendships naturally blossom,” said Ron Friedman, a social psychologist and the author of The Best Place To Work.
“Far too many employers leave close connections to chance. That’s a mistake.”
DAY 5: DON’T CANCEL THOSE PLANS
Make a social plan and put it on the calendar. If you’ve ever told someone you like that you should get coffee “sometime”, today’s the day.
“Many of us might be out of shape when it comes to socialising,” said Philip Gable, an associate professor of psychological and brain sciences at the University of Delaware.
Motivate yourself to go out by setting small goals, he suggested. Instead of committing to be at a party for three hours, he said, give yourself a half-hour, or vow that you’ll chat with three people.
And of course it doesn’t have to be a party.
A face-to-face human interaction of any sort, especially one that might build toward more social dates in the future, is what we’re aiming for today.
A good way to build ties is by joining a group that meets regularly. Researchers call that regular proximity with other humans propinquity and have shown that the more propinquity we have, the greater the chances are that we’ll form friendships.
Get creative. Dig in a neighbourhood community garden. Volunteer with an animal-rescue group. Join a local walking club.
A 2016 study found that people who had “multiple group identifications” – such as hobby groups, support groups or sports teams – had greater levels of happiness.
DAY 6: KEEP HAPPINESS GOING ALL YEAR LONG
Now that we have the tools to improve our “social fitness”, the work of sustaining it begins. Professor Waldinger, who created this challenge with me and other experts, offered three quick tips for the year ahead.
Set specific relationship goals. Professor Waldinger advised committing to making strengthening your bonds an ongoing practice.
“Be realistic,” he said. “Could you do one small thing a few times a week to promote connections, like send one text or email to someone to say hello? Could your goal be to get together with a friend once each week?” Start small and level up.
Nelson, author of several books, including Frientimacy: How To Deepen Friendships For Lifelong Health And Happiness, suggested making a list of the people you want to feel closer to a year from now.
Having this physical reminder will help you look for opportunities to connect with them throughout the year. It’s helpful to use that same specificity when making plans, she added.
Replace vague invitations like “We should get together sometime” with “How’s next Tuesday?”
Commit to consistency. “This is a hard one,” Nelson said, “but recognise that you won’t grow closer to people unless, and until, you’re interacting with them consistently.
If you are not participating in something where you’re seeing the same people regularly, like a book club or sports team, then you have to set up the consistency yourself and make that happen. That involves scheduling and reaching out and initiating.”
The relationships with the people you wrote down on that piece of paper won’t go forward, she added, “if you don’t figure out ways to have more shared experiences and conversations”.
I am haunted by a data point Professor Waldinger mentioned: Over and over, throughout the lives of participants in the Harvard Study of Adult Development, he saw friendships deteriorate because of neglect.
Being purposeful about investing time and energy in your relationships is critical for your well-being, Professor Waldinger said. “The frequency and the quality of contact with other people are two major predictors of happiness.”
