Doing Life Together

"To have common glories in the past, a common will in the present; to have done great things together; to wish to do greater; these are the essential conditions which make up a people." -Joseph Ernest

I am sure you have heard that phrase before, doing life together. It is a phrase that I was reminded of just recently. I was listening to a young couple talking about how their life together was so much more by being part of a larger group. That doing life together with others had changed their lives.

The phrase is most often used in biblical terms, meaning that God never intended for people to do life alone, but to do life together in community. In the medical world, it is said that "...even though research shows that people with strong social ties live longer than those who are isolated," says Shelley Taylor, a psychologist at the University of California in Los Angeles. "Making time for close relationships is as vital as many other things people do, perhaps more important," Taylor says.

I am not talking about living alone versus living in a coupled relationship. I am talking about keeping yourself connected to other people as opposed to living life as a hermit; alone in that respect.

But why stay connected with others?

For one, to live a long life we want the quality of that life to be great. The more contact we have with others as we age, the better we can be at retaining mental sharpness. This provides us with more ability to have that quality of life. A public-health study involving more than 116,000 participants found that people with strong relationships had less mental decline and lived more active, pain-free lives without physical limitations.

It is said that your brain needs you to get out and have 1,000 daily surprises. The stimulation of interacting with others and the new, exciting things that happen. Those are the 1,000 daily surprises. Staying socially connected at work, at home, at church or just in public down at the local coffee shop is important to your life. All of these things help provide those daily surprises.


So maybe you should stop in at the local diner, have a meal, strike up a conversation with others and just do life together and not be alone so much.

Stay inspired and connected my friends.