quality social relationships Archives - Amazing Health Advances https://amazinghealthadvances.net/tag/quality-social-relationships/ Your hub for fresh-picked health and wellness info Fri, 06 Jun 2025 23:10:55 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.8.1 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/AHA_Gradient_Bowl-150x150.jpg quality social relationships Archives - Amazing Health Advances https://amazinghealthadvances.net/tag/quality-social-relationships/ 32 32 How to Make Healthy Choices When It Comes to Eating, Drinking, and Staying Positive During the Holidays https://amazinghealthadvances.net/how-to-make-healthy-choices-when-it-comes-to-eating-drinking-and-staying-positive-during-the-holidays-7743/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=how-to-make-healthy-choices-when-it-comes-to-eating-drinking-and-staying-positive-during-the-holidays-7743 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/how-to-make-healthy-choices-when-it-comes-to-eating-drinking-and-staying-positive-during-the-holidays-7743/#respond Fri, 17 Dec 2021 08:00:23 +0000 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/?p=13623 California State University, Dominguez Hills via Newswise – As the holiday season approaches and 2021 draws to a close, three psychology professors from California State University, Dominguez Hills share research-based ways to form healthy mental habits and support overall well-being during this busy time. Available for interviews. Positive Thinking and Gratitude – Giacomo Bono Associate Professor of Psychology Giacomo Bono studies how qualities of social relationships contribute to mental health, the benefits of gratitude, and the development of resilience. He is the author of Making Grateful Kids: The Science of Building Character Given the stress of this years, how can people take care of their mental health during the holiday season? Humans are wired to focus on the negative, but don’t just cherry-pick the bad stuff. Accepting a balanced view of your life will help your perspective. Have self-compassion and patience for yourself and others. Acknowledge your own improvements and focus on your sources of strength. Celebrate your cherished relationships, appreciate how much you’ve been through and grown, and appreciate if things could have been worse. You can be a blessing to others with simple gestures and phrases of kindness, and it will help you, too. What are some tips for mental health during the holidays? Like mindfulness, gratitude is a reliable way to support mental health and personal well-being. The trick is practicing it in a way that you enjoy, and remembering to do it. There are so many different strategies for practicing gratitude. There’s journaling, thank-you texts, or taking a moment to call someone you’ve been meaning to appreciate. High-five or hug them, and tell them why they matter to you. Remember, it’s in practicing that gratitude benefits your well-being. Alcohol Use – Kevin Montes Assistant Professor Kevin Montes researches addiction and alcohol use, including protective behavioral strategies that minimize the negative consequences of alcohol consumption. What can someone do to avoid drinking alcohol during the holidays? You can let friends know that you don’t want to drink. If going to a public place, don’t bring money or a credit card—this will limit your ability to purchase your own drinks. You can also try to always have a non-alcoholic drink in your hand. What should someone do if they feel pressure to drink? Friends and family may pressure you to drink because it normalizes their own drinking behavior. It also may be that you are perceived as being more fun when you are intoxicated. Regardless of why friends or family pressure you to drink, you are the only one who is in full control of how much (or how little) you drink. Here are some strategies for responding to others, including if someone asks why you’re not drinking: “No thanks” “I am taking it easy tonight” Food Choices – Kaylie Carbine Assistant Professor of Psychology Kaylie Carbine researches how our brain and cognition play a role in our eating habits and decisions. What are some strategies for making healthier eating choices? One of the best things to do is to normalize your favorite holiday treats by allowing yourself to have a few of them every now and then instead of restricting them to one specific gathering. With eating and dieting, restricting foods never goes very well. Your body will start having cravings, and then you tend to overeat those “forbidden foods or treats” when you get access to them. To avoid overeating, one strategy is to eat normally before attending a gathering. That way, you’re not restricting and then overcompensating. It’s the same idea as not going grocery shopping while you’re hungry. If you can be comfortably full before a holiday meal or party, it will help you listen to what your body needs. Eating slowly is also helpful, because it gives your brain time to recognize feelings of fullness. It also helps you to enjoy the whole process of eating, gathering, and socializing, because you can be more focused on what’s going on around you. Are there any ways to “train my brain” to make better eating choices? There’s been a lot of research around improving cognition—how we’re thinking and making decisions. The research I’ve done in my lab shows that exercise is extremely beneficial in improving your brain. It allows the organ to get the resources and nutrients it needs to perform at its highest level, so you can have improved cognition when making decisions about food. In a study we did, people had lower levels of attention to high calorie foods and unhealthy foods after they exercised. The exercise allowed them to better control that attention and have better cognition. The great thing is that you don’t have to go out and run a marathon. Even a 20-minute walk can benefit you. How can I overcome feelings of guilt and anxiety around food, and be kinder to myself? One of my favorite sayings from the Eating Disorder Center is “you can’t hate yourself into healing.” Feelings of guilt and being upset are not going to lead you into better choices or having a healthier diet. Overeating happens, especially around the holidays. Instead of focusing on the food choices you made, focus on the fun times that you had and the joy you got by sharing the food you made or ate. While there’s always room to improve, you don’t want those feelings to overshadow the positive emotions you had about gathering with friends and family. To read the original article click here.

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]]> https://amazinghealthadvances.net/how-to-make-healthy-choices-when-it-comes-to-eating-drinking-and-staying-positive-during-the-holidays-7743/feed/ 0 Teens Who Don’t Date Are Less Depressed and Have Better Social Skills https://amazinghealthadvances.net/3260-2/#utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=3260-2 https://amazinghealthadvances.net/3260-2/#respond Wed, 11 Sep 2019 07:00:00 +0000 http://amazinghealthadvances.net/3260-2 University of Georgia via EurekAlert – Non-dating students had similar or better interpersonal skills than their more frequently dating peers. While the scores of self-reported positive relationships with friends, at home, and at school did not differ between dating and non-dating peers, teachers rated the non-dating students significantly higher for social skills and leadership skills than their dating peers. Dating, especially during the teenage years, is thought to be an important way for young people to build self-identity, develop social skills, learn about other people, and grow emotionally. Yet new research from the University of Georgia has found that not dating can be an equally beneficial choice for teens. And in some ways, these teens fared even better. The study, published online in The Journal of School Health, found that adolescents who were not in romantic relationships during middle and high school had good social skills and low depression, and fared better or equal to peers who dated. “The majority of teens have had some type of romantic experience by 15 to 17 years of age, or middle adolescence,” said Brooke Douglas, a doctoral student in health promotion at UGA’s College of Public Health and the study’s lead author. Normative behavior “This high frequency has led some researchers to suggest that dating during teenage years is a normative behavior. That is, adolescents who have a romantic relationship are therefore considered ‘on time’ in their psychological development.” If dating was considered normal and essential for a teen’s individual development and well-being, Douglas began to wonder what this suggested about adolescents who chose not to date. Maladjusted or Social Misfits? “Does this mean that teens that don’t date are maladjusted in some way? That they are social misfits? Few studies had examined the characteristics of youth who do not date during the teenage years, and we decided we wanted to learn more,” she said. To do this, Douglas and study co-author Pamela Orpinas examined whether 10th grade students who reported no or very infrequent dating over a seven-year period differed on emotional and social skills from their more frequently dating peers. 2013 study They analyzed data collected during a 2013 study led by Orpinas, which followed a cohort of adolescents from Northeast Georgia from sixth through 12th grade. Each spring, students indicated whether they had dated, and reported on a number of social and emotional factors, including positive relationships with friends, at home, and at school, symptoms of depression, and suicidal thoughts. Their teachers completed questionnaires rating each student’s behavior in areas that included social skills, leadership skills and levels of depression. Non-dating students had similar or better interpersonal skills than their more frequently dating peers. While the scores of self-reported positive relationships with friends, at home, and at school did not differ between dating and non-dating peers, teachers rated the non-dating students significantly higher for social skills and leadership skills than their dating peers. Students who didn’t date were also less likely to be depressed. Teachers’ scores on the depression scale were significantly lower for the group that reported no dating. Additionally, the proportion of students who self-reported being sad or hopeless was significantly lower within this group as well. “In summary, we found that non-dating students are doing well and are simply following a different and healthy developmental trajectory than their dating peers,” said Orpinas, a professor of health promotion and behavior. Healthy development “While the study refutes the notion of non-daters as social misfits, it also calls for health promotion interventions at schools and elsewhere to include non-dating as an option for normal, healthy development,” said Douglas. “As public health professionals, we can do a better job of affirming that adolescents do have the individual freedom to choose whether they want to date or not, and that either option is acceptable and healthy,” she said. To read the original article click here.

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