{"id":1704,"date":"2015-03-16T06:00:46","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T10:00:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/?p=1704"},"modified":"2015-03-13T15:25:00","modified_gmt":"2015-03-13T19:25:00","slug":"friends-keep-us-healthy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html","title":{"rendered":"Friends Keep Us Healthy"},"content":{"rendered":"

What mid-life crisis?
\nHow quality time with the girls makes women more optimistic about their future than men<\/p>\n

By Tamara Abraham
\nDaily Mail, U.K.<\/p>\n

Most women treasure the time they spend with their closest girlfriends.<\/p>\n

And according to new research, it is exactly this that makes women in mid-life far more optimistic about their future than men.<\/p>\n

A new study into Americans’ well-being found that 25 per cent of women aged 45 to 55 gave themselves an optimism score of ten out of ten when asked about attitudes to their present and future lives.<\/p>\n

Girl power: Women aged 45-55 are more optimistic about life than men because they have stronger social support networks<\/p>\n

Girl power: Women aged 45-55 are more optimistic about life than men because they have stronger social support networks<\/p>\n

In contrast, just 17 per cent of men of the same age group said the same.<\/p>\n

The reason for this disparity, the Gallup-Healthways survey revealed, was that women spend more quality time with their friends.<\/p>\n

Men, it found, were less likely to have a strong support network.<\/p>\n

Researchers said that it was not the volume of friends that seemed to make the difference, rather the quality, and the amount of face-to-face time.<\/p>\n

The most optimistic women, the study found, had a close circle of between four and 12 girlfriends that ‘have their back’.<\/p>\n

They spend around six hours a day with someone they are close to, be it a partner or a co-worker.<\/p>\n

And having hundreds of ‘friends’ on Facebook is no substitute, says USA Today’s Gail Sheehy, who likens such relationships to business contacts.<\/p>\n

‘Coming home from a conference with a fistful of business cards is not emotionally fulfilling,’ she writes.<\/p>\n

‘”Contacts” won’t be there for you when you have a blow-up with your boss and fear for your job.<\/p>\n

‘If you have no ready social outlet, you’ll likely start to sleep poorly and feel your energy drain. The best way to recover optimism is to walk and talk with a girlfriend or a group.’<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

* ***
\nDonna Henes is the author of The Queen of My Self: Stepping into Sovereignty in Midlife<\/em>.<\/a> She offers counseling and upbeat, practical and ceremonial guidance for individual women and groups who want to enjoy the fruits of an enriching, influential, purposeful, passionate, and powerful maturity. Consult the MIDLIFE MIDWIFE\u2122<\/a><\/p>\n

The Queen welcomes questions concerning all issues of interest to women in their mature years. Send your inquiries to thequeenofmyself@aol.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What mid-life crisis? How quality time with the girls makes women more optimistic about their future than men By Tamara Abraham Daily Mail, U.K. Most women treasure the time they spend with their closest girlfriends. And according to new research, it is exactly this that makes women in mid-life far more optimistic about their future…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":218,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[278,512,544,13,440,200],"class_list":["post-1704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-midlife","tag-community","tag-friends","tag-friendship","tag-holistic-living","tag-life","tag-midlife-crisis"],"yoast_head":"\nFriends Keep Us Healthy - The Queen of My Self<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Friends Keep Us Healthy - The Queen of My Self\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What mid-life crisis? How quality time with the girls makes women more optimistic about their future than men By Tamara Abraham Daily Mail, U.K. Most women treasure the time they spend with their closest girlfriends. And according to new research, it is exactly this that makes women in mid-life far more optimistic about their future…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Queen of My Self\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-03-16T10:00:46+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2015-03-13T19:25:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Donna Henes\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Friends Keep Us Healthy - The Queen of My Self","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Friends Keep Us Healthy - The Queen of My Self","og_description":"What mid-life crisis? How quality time with the girls makes women more optimistic about their future than men By Tamara Abraham Daily Mail, U.K. Most women treasure the time they spend with their closest girlfriends. And according to new research, it is exactly this that makes women in mid-life far more optimistic about their future…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html","og_site_name":"The Queen of My Self","article_published_time":"2015-03-16T10:00:46+00:00","article_modified_time":"2015-03-13T19:25:00+00:00","author":"Donna Henes","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html","name":"Friends Keep Us Healthy - The Queen of My Self","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-03-16T10:00:46+00:00","dateModified":"2015-03-13T19:25:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#\/schema\/person\/544e888db264d2e1c6e32fd2f80c031a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/2015\/03\/friends-keep-us-healthy.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Friends Keep Us Healthy"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/","name":"The Queen of My Self","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Donna Henes","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#\/schema\/person\/544e888db264d2e1c6e32fd2f80c031a","name":"Donna Henes","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0c6\/0c683cd428803d35cf10fae85f8125ebx96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/0c6\/0c683cd428803d35cf10fae85f8125ebx96.jpg","caption":"Donna Henes"},"description":"Donna Henes is an internationally renowned urban shaman, ritual expert, award-winning author, popular speaker and workshop leader whose joyful celebrations of celestial events have introduced ancient traditional rituals and contemporary ceremonies to millions of people in more than 100 cities since 1972. She has published four books, a CD, an acclaimed Ezine and writes for The Huffington Post and UPI Religion and Spirituality Forum. Mama Donna, as she is affectionately called, maintains a ceremonial center, spirit shop, ritual practice and consultancy where she works with individuals, groups, institutions, municipalities and corporations to create meaningful ceremonies for every imaginable occasion.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.thequeenofmyself.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/author\/dhenes"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/218"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1704"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1707,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1704\/revisions\/1707"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/thequeenofmyself\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}