What keeps us healthy and happy as we go through life? If we were going to invest now in your future best self, where would you put your time and your energy?
Pictures of entire lives, of the choices that people make and how those choices work out for them, those pictures are almost impossible to get.
The clearest message that we get from this 75-year study is this: Good relationships keeps us happier and healthier. period.
The first is that social connections connections are really good for us, and that loneliness kills.
And we know that you can be lonely in a crowd and you can be lonely in a marriage, so the second big lesson that we learned is that it's not just the number of friends you have, and it's not whether or not you're in a committed relationship, but it's the quality of your close relationships that matters.
And the third big lesson that we learned about relationships and our health is that good relationships don't just protect our bodies, they protect our brains.
So this message, that good, close relationships are good for our health and well-being, this is wisdom that's as old as the hills.
"There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that."
