Hey Sistas!

Recently, one of my besties sent me this great reminder. I read this a few years ago, but in each season of our life messages hit us differently! I wanted to share it with all of you to encourage you to plan regular time with girlfriends who lift you up, challenge you to be the best you can be, who spotlight your strengths and love you unconditionally. Over the past few weeks I’ve been blessed by several empowering and uplifting moments with girlfriends. This is truly the best anti-depressant and it’s even good for our overall health. Read on…

[Celebrating our dear friend Dawn Mellon as one of this year’s Fashion Stars for a Cause benefitting the Suicide & Crisis Center of North Dallas at the DCC. Photo Credit: Danny Campbell]

INTERESTING BIT ABOUT FEMALE RELATIONSHIPS.  They Teach It at Stanford:

In an evening class at Stanford University, the last lecture was on the mind-body connection — the relationship between stress and disease.

The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman. … . whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.

At first everyone laughed, but he was serious. Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically, this quality “girlfriend time” helps us to create more serotonin — a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being.

Women share feelings, whereas men often form relationships around activities. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidentlythat is very GOOD for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

[GNO with LeeAnne Locken & Cynthia Smoot]

There’s a tendency to think that when we are “exercising” we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged? Not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!

[With Heidi & Erica Annise at PositiviTEA benefitting The Grace Project for women living with HIV/AIDS]

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health!
We are indeed very, very lucky. So…. let’s toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently, it’s very good for our health. 

Love,

Tiff