Changing Your Social Group Can Improve Your Health

Facebook has some great new ads out that demonstrate that everyone has a social group of people like them.  Anyone play kazoo?

We tend to hang around with people in our same stage of life, or people who like the same things we do, or think in similar ways.  But there are benefits to expanding our social groups, hanging with people who are different from us perhaps younger or older or from a different political group that can help us grow and change for the better.

Benefits of Hanging out With People of Different Generations:

 

Keeps You Young – Friendships of different ages keeps you young.  Ask any grandparent, they are kids again when playing with their grandchildren.  A trip to the park becomes full of wonder and miracles when viewed through the eyes of a child.  A simple kite flying outing can spark your imagination to life’s best joys.

Encourage Others – If you are a mom with young children and the only people you hang around is mom’s with young children you can start to get discouraged.  Your social network is all facing the same issues.  But if you have friends with older children or grown children they can help you see some perspective that encourages you and gives you a view outside of your day to day tasks.

Pass on Wisdom – Each stage of life when completed gives you the hindsight and the wisdom to pass along what you have learned from your experience.  We would be wise to share our lessons with others in order to make their way easier if they are willing to listen and learn.  Been there and done that.  That is why we all love YouTube videos.  They teach us from the “been there done that” school.

Technology Transfer – Changes in technology are moving fast.  This can be very troubling for the elderly and yet the services and security that technology can provide can be very beneficial for the old.  This is where young people can help their elders.  You got it.  If my phone starts doing something crazy, I find a child and generally they can fix it.  It is good to have friends of all ages so that when it comes to technology we can help one another.

Improves Networking – If you hang out with people of all ages they all will have contacts in different areas of expertise.  You may need a job and a retired person who has worked their whole life may have the business contacts you need.  You also may need a babysitter, and a mom of teens may know just who to call.  All of these different generations can offer contact help to each other.

Combats Loneliness – As we age we lose our friends to death our world can start to feel small and lonely.  Having friends in all age groups means we will always have others to rely on and not start to feel like the last one left.  For a young mother, having older friends means she has people who are free to help her watch kids or provide a meal when things have gotten too busy.  Retirees have time to help.

Benefits Working Out With People of Different Athletic Abilities:

 

Improved Muscle Fitness – Different sporting activities work different muscles and rely on different sets of skills.  If you generally only do yoga, why not try a swimming class.  It is easy on joints and is great for improving fitness.

Challenges You To Work Harder – If you are the fittest person in your exercise class and you no longer have to push yourself to keep up with the trainer, it is probably time to upgrade to a different class level.  Better athletes and people who are working hard will help motivate you to improve.  In order to improve your fitness you need to keep upping your game.

Conclusion:

There are social health benefits and fitness benefits to mixing up who we hang out with and work out with.  People of different generations have unique skill sets that can be beneficial to others in their community.  People of different athletic abilities can help improve our fitness levels.

Expanding our experiences allows us to improve our social health and our fitness health.  So next time you want to join a club (book club or sky diving) think outside of your comfort level or what is usual.  Or next time you want to try an exercise class, try a fitness activity that you have never tried before.  These new experiences and the people doing them can change you for the better in many ways that are healthy.

Let’s better our communities and ourselves by changing up our social groups.