Introduction
Relationship health is about more than just finding a lifelong partner. It also means developing and maintaining healthy, non-sexual friendships with other men and women.
Healthy friendships are essential for both sexes. Having friends whom you can confide in and trust helps to reduce your stress and improve your overall quality of life. Studies show that men typically have far fewer friends than women.
Factors to Consider
Through the emerging field of social neuroscience, the health community is discovering how powerfully a person's interactions with others can affect them both mentally and physically.
Even the most routine encounters with others act as regulators in the brain. During these neural link-ups, the brain engages in an emotional tango, a dance of feelings. The resulting emotions have far-reaching consequences that ripple throughout the body, sending out cascades of hormones that affect biological systems from the heart to immune cells. Experts in social neuroscience can even pinpoint a link between a stressful relationship and the operation of specific genes that regulate the immune system.
To a surprising extent, then, relationships shape not just a person's emotional experiences but also their biology and health. However, this link can be a double-edged sword: nourishing relationships have a beneficial impact on health, while toxic ones can act like poison in the body.
What You Can Do
Work to increase your emotional intelligence (EI).
Get involved in an association, club or religious community. Being a member of a group will help you meet others with similar interests.
Help out your neighbours or colleagues and don't be afraid to ask for help in turn. Doing favours for each other is one of the ways men establish and cement friendships.
Set aside a time each week to do activities with a friend. This could include playing golf, attending a game or seeing a movie.
Extend empathy to other people instead of judgement.
When someone gives you a compliment, receive it graciously instead of deflecting it.
Further Resources
Contact the Alberta Mental Health Board at www.amhb.ab.ca or 1-877-303-2642 and the Canadian Mental Health Association at www.cmha.calgary.ab.ca or 297-1700.
