Give love a chance

Valentine’s Day may technically be for lovers, but you can reach out to anyone in this month of love and enjoy the many benefits associated with strong social ties. After all, relationships are not just for lovers. This Valentine’s month we encourage you to celebrate the people around you. Here’s how.

1. Smile

Research suggests that smiling at passers-by as we go about our daily lives makes us feel more connected, with powerful results. Feeling connected, even for a fleeting moment, helps lift the feelings of isolation and loneliness that many of us experience on a daily basis. Loneliness has been linked to various complaints including a weakened immune system, raised blood pressure and poor sleep. Reaching out and acknowledging one another with something as simple and innocuous as a smile can help take the edge off negative feelings that threaten to overwhelm many of us every day. It also helps break down the barriers of culture; race and religion that foster disunity.

2. Connect with colleagues

Ron Friedman, psychologist and author of The Best Places to Work: The Art and Science of Creating an Extraordinary Workplace, states that friendship is the single most overlooked factor when it comes to building an extraordinary workplace. According to Friedman, having friends at work improves your ability to focus, helps you recover from setbacks quicker and boosts job performance. Far from distracting us from the job at hand as previously believed, research suggests that being on friendly terms with colleagues actually boosts decision-making and collaborative thinking. Friends tend to commit to team efforts from the outset, while acquaintances experience greater difficulty in coming together as a collaborative group.

Performance aside, having friends at work makes the work environment far more palatable and boosts morale, so make eye contact and greet and get to know your colleagues. The benefits far outweigh the initial pain of leaving your comfort zone and reaching out.

3. Take an interest

We are all on this journey of life together. Instead of keeping your head down and avoiding people, take an interest in those around you. Our natural inclination in the busyness of life is to absorb ourselves in our to-do lists rather than look for opportunities to engage with others – to our own detriment. Depression, loneliness and stress are on the rise and feeling disconnected feeds these issues. Let’s create a culture of caring and sharing our lives – there’s no need to feel isolated or overlooked, love really is all around us.