Friendships are more than just fun. Positive relationships like exercise and healthy eating should be considered an investment in your own health. It’s not only fun to spend time with friends, but it has many long-term benefits for your physical and emotional well-being. Any type of social support, regardless of whether your friends include a partner or have close family ties, is beneficial.
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1. Stress reduced
Everyone experiences stressful events. You may find it less stressful to know that you can count on others. Think back to the last time that you were worried or upset about something. Maybe you shared your worries with a friend who listened and helped you brainstorm solutions. If you’re surrounded by friends who care about you and are willing to help, potential stressors won’t have the chance to build up to cause serious distress.
2. Friends can help boost self-esteem
Friends can increase self-esteem and confidence. A good friend is your cheerleader. Friends who share your joy are always good friends. Supportive friends can make you feel more confident when you are feeling uncertain. They will offer praise and encouragement, as well as reassurance. They will highlight your incredible qualities and the many things you can offer others.
3. Friends can offer emotional support
A friend can help you get out of a difficult situation. Your psychological well-being is improved by having close social ties. People who view their family and friends as supportive have a higher sense of meaning and purpose.
4. Friends encourage you to be your best self
Positive friendships can have a huge impact on your life. Friends who are kind, generous, ambitious, family-oriented, and help others are more likely than you to have those values. You may find that your friends will support you in making positive changes and supporting your decisions. A buddy who is a runner or a member of a gym can help you to stick with it until it becomes a routine.
Good friends are important at every stage of your life. As you grow and mature, some aspects of your friendship will change. Strong friendships will last year after year because they are built on trust, respect and forgiveness.
5. Friendships promote a sense of belonging
Mahzad Hojijat, PhD is a professor of psychology at Dartmouth University. He has conducted research on friendships and the benefits of close relationships. According to a study published in Psychology 2015, a sense of belonging is an important psychological health factor and can help decrease feelings of hopelessness and depression.
6. Friends Can Help Boost Self-Esteem
Friends can boost self-confidence, self-worth and self-worth. Your cheerleader is a good friend. Dr. Hojjat states, “You want friends who share in your success and are happy for you.”
A study published May 2015 in PloS One shows that belonging is associated with higher self-esteem. This is because people take pride and gain meaning from these relationships.
7. Strong social connections can help you reduce stress in your life
“Friendships can help us buffer stress,” Hojjat states. She says that friends can be a great help during difficult times in our lives.
It is also possible to make a positive impact on the physical world by touching someone. In a study published October 2018 in PloS One, it was found that hugging relieves stress and other negative emotions. Harding states that a positive and welcoming physical touch is great to improve health and connection. This is a difficult task due to the pandemic. Harding states that skin hunger or touch starvation is real and makes it crucial to increase emotional closeness during the pandemic.
8. Friendships may help protect cognitive health
Research on elderly women showed that having a large network of friends has a protective effect on cognition and lowers the risk for dementia. However, more research is required to determine why.
A study published August 2021 in JAMA Network Open showed that brain health can be protected by having good conversations. In a study of 2,171 adults, the data revealed that those who said they had someone to listen to and who were able to count on them to be there for them as a good listener were more likely to have higher cognitive resilience (a measure which is known to protect against brain diseases like dementia and brain aging).
9. Friends help us cope with all kinds of grief
Consider the last time you were faced with a difficult situation. You will likely be able to overcome any challenges by having a network of friends that you can lean on. Harding states that people who feel alone have a harder time bouncing back after life’s difficulties.
A small study published by the Iranian Journal of Nursing and Midwifery Research in July-August 2015 found that stillbirth mothers relied on social support to escape their loneliness. Social support and having people around us is the most important thing in our lives. Franco says that people can overcome traumatic times by having someone to support them.
10. Friends can encourage healthy behavior
Hojjat believes that positive relationships with others who make healthy choices can encourage you to make similar healthy choices. You might be attracted to physical activity if your friends are active.
If they have concerns about you, they can speak up. Hojjat states that friends can see if you engage in unhealthy behaviors, such as drinking excessively or gaining weight. They are seeing you daily and interacting with you.
Experts at Keck Medicine of University of Southern California Los Angeles believe that relationships can have a negative impact on your physical health. This is due to the body’s stress response. Chronic stress can lead to isolation and loneliness, which can have a negative impact on your health. However, maintaining positive friendships can help you stay healthy.
11. Social connections with others may lower the risk of long-term health problems
Franco states that “social connection is essential for our ability to lead a healthy lifestyle.”
In a review published May 2020 in Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Review, it was found that loneliness and social isolation may be related to inflammation. According to Harvard Health Publishing , unhealthy levels of inflammation could lead to serious health problems such as heart disease, arthritis and stroke.
Having strong social ties has also been linked with a lower risk of depression and healthier blood pressure and body mass indexes, review published by PLoS Med showed that participants who have strong social relationships had a 50% higher chance of survival.
Harding states that the difference in mortality risk was not due to age, gender or medical conditions, but rather positive social connections with other people. “Those with greater social integration, as measured by marital status, number and involvement with friends, had the greatest health benefits.”
13. Happy Friendships are a key to happiness
In June 2019, a study in PloS One showed that strong social circles (measured by participants’ cellphone activity) were a better predictor of happiness and general wellbeing than fitness tracker data such as heart rate or physical activity.
It is a good idea to surround yourself with happy people, especially when they are close by. A study that involved more than 4,000 adults found that friends who live within a mile of you increase their happiness by 25%.