I’ve got a brief one for you today as I am up in the air once again.

But that’s OK, because I came up on a great nugget to share with you!

Wouldn’t it be great to know the scientifically proven secret to having a happy life?

Well, here it is. It boils down to two words: Better relationships.

The Harvard Study of Adult Development followed a large number of people for over 80 years. It is the largest and longest study of its kind ever conducted.

They proved that, indeed, you can’t buy happiness. What you can do is consciously make an effort to continually improve the quality of your friendships and relationships.

Robert Waldinger and Marc Schulz, two of the researchers behind the study wrote a book called “The Good Life – Lessons from the World’s Longest Scientific Study of Happiness.”

They coined the term “social fitness“ and found things like the fact that the people who were the most satisfied in their relationships at age 50 were the healthiest (mentally and physically) at age 80.

With all the other forms of fitness that we modern folks like to think about, it’s interesting to note that putting a more effort into cultivating positive relationships has the biggest payoff of all.

And with that I wish you the best in social fitness till next Monday!

M+

ML #615

Mark Metz
Director of the Dance First Association
Publisher of Conscious Dancer Magazine