My Holiday Wish for You

Spend time with girlfriends.  It’s good for you.

Of late I’ve carved out more time with valued friends.  Recently. Deanna took me on an adventure to watch her prepare her Arabian Horse Brew for a parade.  I lived in her world for a couple of days watching her prepare for the appearance.  I learned to overcome my childhood fear of horses as I witnessed her relationship with this animal.

In a later issue I’ll tell you more about this trip.  But right now consider the attached article from my friend Beth.

In an evening class at Stanford the last lecture was on the mind-body connection – the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one
of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a
woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her
health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends. At first
everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support
systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life
experiences. Physically this quality ” girlfriend time” helps is to create
more serotonin – a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can
create a general feeling of well-being. Women share feelings
whereas men often form relationships around activities. We share from our
souls with our “sisters”, and evidently that is very GOOD
for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as
important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There’s a tendency to think that when we are “exercising” we are
doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with
friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively
engaged – not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain
quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our
physical health as smoking !

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat
yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for
your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo let’s toast to our
friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it’s very good for our health.

Forward this to all your girlfriends and stay in touch! Thanks
to all the girls in my life who have helped me stay healthy, happy, and
feeling very loved.