Women's Issues

We can say without doubt that intimate friendships have always been important for women. But have you noticed that they have become even more so that you faced with the transition of children who grow up and parents growing older? Findings from the MacArthur Foundation a recent study shows that the emotional security and social support these relationships for women is a survival strategy for them in adversity. In fact, friendship is one of the keys to a long and happy life.

A landmark UCLA study suggests that women respond to stress brains with chemicals that cause us to maintain friendships with other women. Until this study was published, scientists generally believed that stress causes hormonal cascade that prepare the body to remain in either fight or to flee. Now they believe that women are more behavioral choices than just fight or flight. It seems that when the hormone oxytocin is released as part of the stress response in women, they respond by tending to children and meet with other women. When they meet these activities, more hormones are released, a further reduction of stress and produces a calming effect.

These 'tend and befriend' concept, developed by Drs. Shelley Taylor and Laura Klein, could explain why women consistently outlive men. Studies have found that social ties less risk of the disease and help us live longer. Friends help us live better. The famous Nurses' Health Study from Harvard Medical School determined that the greater the number of friends women have, the less chance they develop physical limitations as they age, and the greater the chance that they lead to a joyful life. And that's not all. Research on how well women function after their spouse is deceased, indicates that even in the face of these serious stressor, women who have a close friend and confidante more likely to survive the experience without any new physical limitations or permanent loss of vitality .

So Sandwiched Boomers, look at your friendships and build them now:

1. Rate your friends and give these relationships the time and attention they need to thrive. As for the other women for support may offer some of the strength to help you cope.

2. Women's friendships can be complicated. What you need from each other, and the intensity and frequency of these needs, it can lead to some misunderstandings. Hang during the rough periods.

3. Friendships change throughout life. When you are young, friends help form your identity. In adolescence, peer pressure, your sense of independence depends on what you see reflected in their eyes. If you know who you are, how do your friends seem less important.

4. Nobody friend in a position to meet all your needs. As you mature, your attention turns more to qualities such as compatibility, trust, empathy and respect. When going through challenges, different friends can support, validation and comfort.

5. Friends buffer the effects of an emergency and are a source of meaning and purpose on painful moments. You can see the temptation to draw away in an attempt to deal with problems on your own, but this is the time to stay adhesion with the people you understand.

6. It may be difficult for you to ask for help when you used to be the one who provides. Maybe you feel that your confidence comes from not having to depend on others. Now it's time to acknowledge that, man, you can receive support as well.

7. Feel free to buddy with a friend who is in similar changes. Accept her love and encouragement if you allow her a good feeling about the opportunity to help you. Your friends can provide a supportive network, only if you let them in.

8. Giving as well as receiving support is beneficial. When you offer and accept friendship, you find you healthier over time. As the 17th-century British playwright, Hada Bejar, said: "The smell is always in the hand that gives the rose."

Whether it's an informal dinner after work or a weekend away in a spa, book clubs monthly or weekly exercise work, not your love to get together with other women? Friendship forms who we are and who we are not. If friends from the stress that swallows many of our time, which is a source of strength and food, keeping us healthy and even years to our lives, we owe it to ourselves to find the time to use them. It is crucial for our well-being.