When relationship expert, Anne Hellegren, invited me on her podcast, The Love You Want, It Starts with You!, I was delighted and honestly a bit nervous.
After all, I’m a healthy aging coach—a DIVORCED healthy aging coach! What would I have to talk about on a relationship podcast?
Turns out, a lot. Multiple bodies of research (including studies documented by John Hopkins, Mayo Clinic, The Blue Zones research, Dr. Dean Ornish and the Framingham studies) tell us that there is a definite connection between our health—both physical and emotional— and our relationships, particularly as we age.
The Framingham study in particular shows that smoking, obesity, happiness and loneliness are contagious, and other research suggests that loneliness is as dangerous and deadly as smoking and obesity.
Apparently, love and intimacy are healing, and loneliness and Isolation are deadly.
Maybe like you, many of my clients are single, either by choice, divorce or due to the death of a partner/spouse. And let’s not overlook the millions of Americans with partners/spouses living in memory care facilities.
While I’m now in a relationship with a wonderful, supportive guy, before meeting Rob, I was single for a good portion of my adult life.
Even when I was married, I was by myself a lot and often felt alone in my relationship. My former husband worked a ton, and it was common for us to literally be living half a world away from each other. At the time, I thought it was great having all of that freedom and independence, but looking back, I realize how lonely and unhappy I was.
Not married? Don’t have a romantic partner? Estranged from your family? Not a problem. Healthy connections can come from friends and pets, as well as the more traditional avenues. What matters is a shared bond.
Tune in to my conversation with Anne wherever you get your podcasts, or at link in bio, where we discuss how our happiness is directly related to our health and how chronic loneliness and isolation can be deadly, as well as:
Divorce and its effects later in life
Losing our identities in relationships and how we go about re-discovering ourselves outside the tags of wife, mother, partner, etc.
Staying in relationships that we should have left sooner
How generations and culture affect our dating habits and expectations of a relationship
Being independent while still appreciating factors in a relationship that now seem to be seen as outdated.
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