A workout for mental health: how we train our social muscle

In most cases, anyone who speaks of training means physical activity., jogging through the park, yoga exercises at home, all that. But we can not only train our body, but also our minds. They may have heard of the good old brain jogging. This technique helps to be more attentive and concentrated, stupidly said: to exhaust our gray cells. But they knew that you toocan train?A regular workout of our "social muscles" should help prevent loneliness and better control our mental health. How exactly does that work?

. Anyone who has already felt lonely know what we are talking about. It reinforces the feeling of social isolation, suddenly you think that you were only on yourself and no longer have anyone with which you can exchange and interact. The need for human connection remains unfulfilled. And that really goes to health: loneliness can lead to a variety of mental problems, including depression, anxiety and a reduced self -esteem. Chronic loneliness can increase the production of stress hormones. This weakens the immune system in the long term and the risk of cardiovascular diseases is increased. In addition, loneliness affects cognitive function and can accelerate the progression of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's. Of course, this does not happen immediately when you feel lonely. But with this negative spiral we want to show which far -reaching consequences can have loneliness. Even in the short term, this feeling does not make us happy. After all, we all know that happiness and satisfaction are decisive with emotional human connections. That is why it is so important to oppose loneliness. The training of the social muscle should help here.

Don't worry, you did not miss the social muscle in anatomy lessons and will not find it anywhere on your body. This muscle is much more a metaphorical description of the ability to initiate, maintain and enjoy social interactions. Similar to a physical muscle that is strengthened by regular training, the social muscle can be developed and promoted by frequent and positive social experiences. This ability is crucial for how well our relationships work and how well we are doing with us and our social contacts. For example, a well -developed social muscle can have a positive effect on mental health by increasing self -esteem and the feeling of social competence. People with a strong social muscle are often better able to, because they are collected well by your network. In addition, this ensures a good mood and can reduce loneliness. Conversely, a weak social muscle that arises from a lack of social interaction and isolation can endanger our mental health in the long term. There is a risk that affected people feel isolated - and you already know how problematic loneliness is. Therefore, you should do something for strengthening the social muscle in addition to body and mind.

When training the social muscle, it is about strengthening the ability to strengthen and maintain social connections. By improving our social skills, it becomes easier to get in touch with others and to build more profound relationships. The problem with loneliness is often that we do not have enough social contacts or just don't have it to approach new people directly and to interact with them. By learning these skills and spending more time with friends, family and the colleague, the social muscle is strengthened and loneliness is reduced. But it's not just about getting more social endurance. The training of the social muscle should also help develop better strategies to develop ourTo recharge faster and to better exploit our existing capacities. Often we feel drained quickly by excessive social contact - and have to withdraw, although we are actually lonely and can urgently need contact. A well -trained social muscle ensures a higher tolerance limit and healthy behavior with which we do ourselves, our environment and above all our mental health.

Now we talked around the hot porridge for a long time and the training of the social muscle as a long -termadvertised (on which no one really feels like). The only thing missing is to reveal how the training works at all. How can you learn better social skills? And how can you deal better in and with social situations?

Prefered and use similarities: It is never easy to make new contacts. However, this can work through hobbies such as a new sports course. Finding like -minded people there with whom you can exchange ideas about common interests helps to strengthen the social muscle.

Remove small talk skills: Even if constant small talk is definitely not a long-term strategy to grow the social muscle, better small talk skills help to get in touch with people faster.

Use offers: There are now other ways to get to know new people. For example via dating apps. Bumble, for example, offers an extra feature through which you can get to know new people and make social contacts.

To strengthen the social muscle, you have to interact with other people. However, this only helps the mental health if you don't overwhelm yourself at the same time. Sometimes it is good to listen to your own needs and if you don't feel like people, then sometimes you don't feel like people.And also does not necessarily mean that you are alone. In addition, you always have to give yourself time and space to recharge the social batteries. Otherwise you will be burned out quickly. After all, we don't want to overuse the social muscle either. We know from sport how little that really brings the muscles.