How many social environments do you have? How are you treated in those environments? Which environments should you stay in; leave or join?These are important questions to ask and take action on if you want to become and remain emotionally well.
Choosing better social environments will increase your desire to live; as will giving yourself permission to leave those painful to you. Sounds simple, right? But do you do this? Do you manage your social environments or do you just put up with them?
In his book Outliers author Malcolm Gladwell writes about an Italian community that moved to Pennsylvania US and set up a town called Roseto. The town underwent a study in the 1950s because its main cause of death was old age.
Towns next door had death rates from heart disease three times higher than that of Roseto – in fact it was rare to find anyone under 65 who had any sign of heart disease.
The people from Roseto had no suicide, alcoholism, no drugs, almost no crime, no welfare, no ulcers. They cooked with lard, had a diet full of cholesterol and ‘unhealthy’ food; they were heavy smokers and had a lot of obesity.
But their life expectancy was much higher than anywhere else in the US.
The secret to Roseto was in its social structure. Rosetans stopped to chat with each other, they cooked for each other. They cared about, calmed and respected each other.
Can you take steps to help create a better social environment for yourself? Are you willing to end difficult relationships and cultivate deeper ones? Are you willing to put the effort in to offer genuine friendship to those who can reciprocate? If you do it will increase your desire to live and the evidence from Roseto suggests this trumps all the medication in the world.
It could be the most important decisional area of your life.
Regards - Carl
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