Friends Help Us Age Well

Especially during the holiday season  but also generally, we continually make memorable moments. But who would you rather make those moments with-friends or family? Many of us may wish to spend a little more of our moments with friends than our family and now we know why. Research suggests close friendships may be a stronger predictor of health and happiness as we age than our family relationships.

As we wrap up our #MemoryMakeover and focus on celebrations this month, let’s make sure to cultivate our friendships as we celebrate. Based on studying over 271,000 people over 100 countries, two studies demonstrated that our friendships are a strong predictor of health and happiness as we age. The saying about being able to pick your friends rings true. If we pick wisely and nurture our friendships over time, they can help us age well.

This could be one reason why those who age with healthy memories are often found to have strong social networks. During the holidays when we often share moments with family, let’s also spend some of those with our friends too. Give in this season of giving. Share your time and yourself with both friends and family and enjoy making new memories together. Friends help us stay accountable too, so share memory techniques or strategies learned in our #MemoryMakeover with them and grow together!

It’s my hope that these last few months of working on your own personal #MemoryMakeover goals proved useful and productive. None of us are perfect and our memories are ever evolving, so don’t be discouraged if not every goal was met. Just keep working at it. So, your last #MemoryMakeover homework is simple: Take a moment to assess how you did toward your memory goals during this fall. What worked well and what still needs additional improvement? Write down your assessment and review our previous posts on goals, organization, execution and how to celebrate your memory, if needed.

I hope this holiday season is a source of many memorable moments with both family and friends for all of us. Don’t forget to take time to reflect, review and renew yourself and your mind over the holidays. Then, get ready to jump into January, rested and ready to make even more memorable moments!