More positive input from Ruddy Adam!

One thing I’ve learned since I’ve been studying the brain for the purpose of helping us protect it and to aid us better as we age is that one of the most important things you can do for your brain health — and your overall health — is to make sure you put aside time to socialize face-to-face with friends.

And — by socializing — I do not mean talking to people at work. I do not mean talking to them on the phone, through emails, social media, or texting. I mean purposely getting together with people you enjoy being with — people that you can say you love, like, and that you can easily laugh with. People you’re relaxed around.

Toward that end, shun trying to socialize with braggarts, grouches, negative people, narcissists, self-centered apes, people who don’t laugh, critical people, people whose personalities drastically change as soon as the cork pops out of the wine bottle, sensitive people, people who consistently interrupt when others are talking, and people who normally have their minds on something other than having fun and relaxing (as if they have somewhere else they need to be). You will do your brain more harm than good fooling with these type of people.

Indeed, taking time to get together with people you enjoy being with and laughing and having fun may be more important than getting the proper amount of sleep and taking quality supplements — both of which rate high on the health scale. And it’s definitely more important than exercising and staying on a rigid diet. (Not that any of the above is not good for you. It’s just that they rate below having a positive outlook, being a positive thinker rather than a negative one, and being a social being who laughs and enjoys having fun with friends.)

Every ounce of the latest and most thorough research we have shows that people who consistently socialize with positive people tend to be the healthiest people on earth. Their socializing habits — their purposeful search for laughter, their love of being with friends — make them far more susceptible to better health than those who do not value socializing and laughter. I don’t mean getting together once a month; that won’t help. I mean consistently getting together when people you enjoy being with, positive people.

Why? It’s simple. Your brain loves positive socialization. Your brain loves it when you laugh. Your brain loves it when you’re around people you like and enjoy. And it rewards you by pouring positive chemicals down through your body. The results of the body’s receiving these positive chemicals is that they cause the body to be better able to protect you from every known disease, especially ones brought about by inflammation and stress — which are just about all of them.

When you get together with friends make sure you don’t talk about life’s problems, your problems, their problems, family problems — and very much of anything that’s serious or may be considered negative. Shut your phone off; if it does ring while you’re socializing with friends, don’t dare answer it! If you get a text — ignore it! Besides being plain rude, the brain takes these interruptions just as it does when someone butts in on another while they’re talking — negatively — as if a deadly enemy has just entered the room. Result: out come the negative chemicals that cause aging and disease.

Be positive! Be light. Listen to your friends. Enjoy them — and let them know you enjoy being with them. Give them positive feedback; hush the negative replies. Audibly express their personal positives directly to them — and mentally put the quietus on their negatives. Remember: the brain loves giving positives, just as it loves receiving them.

Unless it’s in regard to something funny and light, socializing with friends is not the time to talk about your parents, children, grandchildren, your family, and your work. It’s time to stretch your mind away from normal things and to enjoy the abnormal, the different, the funny, the relaxing. It’s time to share good things with your friends.

So then, specifically make dates to spend time — face-to-face — with people who make you feel good, people who love to laugh, interesting people who have sense enough to know that all humans need to set aside time to have fun and to eschew seriousness. It’s time to be a child again — and play. It’s time to take time for yourself. Your brain will love you and reward you for doing it — and in turn your body with be healthier for it.

If you’re not someone who values socializing with friends — learn to. Just as reasonable people have done over the years when they have learned what foods aid our health and those that make us sick, they thus altered their diets. Now that we know how important positive socialization is, do the same: put it high on the scale of things to do in your life.

For your health: Ruddy Adam