Hidden Brain - Relationships 2.0: The Power of Tiny Interactions

As you're going about your day, you likely interact with family, friends and coworkers. These relationships can help you feel cared for and connected. But what if there's a whole category of people in your life whose impact is overlooked? In the second episode of our "Relationships 2.0" series, psychologist Gillian Sandstrom reveals some simple ways to make your life a little more joyful and maybe even a little less lonely.

Duration: 55m
Broadcast on: 07 Nov 2022
Audio Format: other

Did you catch the first episode in this series, about how to engage in conflict more productively? You can find it here. And if you like our work, please consider a financial contribution to help us make many more episodes like this one.

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This is Hidden Brain, I'm Shankar Vedanta. Ask yourself, what makes you happy? Many people would say, spending time with close friends, quality moments with family, playing with a pet. Most of us can agree, relationships are at the heart of a life well-lived. Social science research bears this out. Countless studies suggest that our emotional ties to others shape our well-being. Long-running analyses that track people over time show that social connections are not just about our emotional well-being, they're important determinants of our physical health. But it's one thing to say that relationships are important. It's another to go about getting them, or preserving them. Lifelong friends move away to other towns and countries. Romantic relationships come undone. Relatives pass away. And especially as people get older, many find it difficult to form new relationships, even as they yearn, to feel close to others. New psychological research suggests a solution to this problem, or at least a partial solution, and it's one that's easily accessible to everyone.

Last week, we kicked off our relationships 2.0 series with a look at how to make conflicts less stressful and more productive. This week on Hidden Brain, a user's manual on how to boost your social connections and your happiness.

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