How important are friends? In terms of longer life, not having them is: - Equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day
- Equivalent to being an alcoholic
- More harmful than not exercising
- Twice as harmful as obesity
Who says so? Studies by the Mayo Clinic, Harvard University, Illinois University, Brigham Young University and many others say so.
If you want to live longer and better, friends are essential. For everyone. But particularly for seniors. Seniors have a particularly tough time making new friends. Old friends die. Seniors move to be near children, or to find better climate. But for seniors, it is exceptionally hard to break into new social circles; the ones they try to enter are set in concrete and rarely welcoming. Knowing this is one thing. Knowing what to do about it is another thing entirely.
Sunie Levin, a lifelong educator and author, after losing many old friends and moving to a new community, found herself facing this exact problem. How do you make new friends from scratch, especially when everyone else is comfortable in their own tight circles?
Her new breezy, warm-hearted book tackles this exact problem, with specific ideas for seniors, boomers--and everyone else, for that matter--regarding how to develop meaningful new friendships, whether you are active or home bound. These ideas work. She should know--after moving into a new community where she literally didn't know a soul, within a few months her social calendar was so full her husband was begging for a little down time.
Make New Friends...Live Longer, with its slightly enlarged type and no-nonsense, effective advice is a great gift for grandma or grandpa, or anyone else for that matter, who feels isolated yet has no clue as to how to reach out for friends. Her softcover book is currently available at bookstores across the country.
