Want to Make Lasting Friends? Try Yoga!

Spending quality time with family, friends, and community - while also staying open to new relationships - is the secret to a happy, healthy life. One of the most powerful ways to forge more vital, lasting connections: yoga.

- Melinda Dodd

TAKE A WALK THROUGH any public space,and you’ll spot more than a few people moving about as if they’re in a trance, staring down at their smartphones while weaving through the crowd, or mind melding with their digital tablets as they shop, dine, or ride the train. All too often, contact with others is taking place over text, Skype, or email—not face-to-face. It’s a dramatic shift from the way things were just a few decades ago. For example, a 1987 University of California, Los Angeles survey found that almost 4o percent of the school’s freshmen spent 16 hours or more per week socializing with others in person; today, just 18 percent of UCLA’s freshmen devote the same amount of time to doing so. Digital communication has, for many, become a default mode, while hanging out “IRL” seems like a throwback—a trend that’s a bit worrisome when you consider that getting together with pals has significant benefits for our health and well-being.

Strong, broad-based social support (the kind you tend to develop via in-person interactions) increases your odds of living longer by 91 percent, according to a review of 148 studies conducted by researchers at Brigham Young University. Close connections also have a proven impact on survival or quality of life for people facing health issues like cancer, stroke, dementia, depression, and diabetes. Being embedded in a community is biologically reassuring, experts theorize; it confers a protective effect that actually seems to boost immunity and fights stress and inflammation.