Relate

Strong social ties can help make you healthier and happier.

Make Real Connections

Your Facebook friends and Twitter followers may number in the thousands, but they can’t compare to the friend you kvetch with over coffee or the sister you call when you have good—or bad—news, and then there are your girls’-night-out pals. Spending time with good friends is a surefire stress-buster, keeping your energy up and your body more resistant to fatigue and illness.

• Pets are people-lovers, too. Don’t limit connections to the human variety. You can derive plenty of health benefits from the unconditional love of animals. Their energy can be contagious.
• When you stifle your needs and emotions, you stifle your energy.

Acknowledge Someone

Here’s a twofer. When you recognize another person’s value—for a generous act, a kind word or an admirable trait—your positive energy reverberates throughout your body and hers. So acknowledge someone. Every day. It might be as simple as “Thanks for being so patient. I know you were under a lot of stress and I appreciate that you took the time to help me out.” Or “I really admire how kind you are even with the most belligerent patients.”

Truth Be Told

If you want a cup of espresso for the soul: Tell the truth. “If there’s someone you don’t want to talk to, something you don’t want to do or something you’re just plain uncomfortable about, nine out of 10 times there’s truth that hasn’t been spoken,” says life coach Lauren Zander, who suggests taking the following steps:

1. Ask permission. “Would it be okay if I told you how I really felt the other day when [fill in the blank] happened?”
2. Start the conversation with “This is how it is for me.” You’ll never get anywhere with a conversation that puts the blame on the other person.
3. Tell your truth. Let the other person know the way it really is for you. The energizing power of telling the truth actually has less to do with whether your listener “gets it” than it does with expressing your feelings.

Do you have friends, relatives or coworkers who drag you down with negativity, leaving you angry, deflated, somehow incomplete and nearly always drained of energy? Is your relationship both unsupportive and unrewarding? And you hang out with these blamers, complainers, boundary-crossers or drama queens why? Time to vanquish the energy vampires.

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