Let's Hear it For the Girls!

There is just something special about having girl friends. I love my husband dearly, can talk to him about anything, love to spend every waking moment with him… but the one time I tricked him into a clear coat of toenail polish after a foot massage he scraped the polish off with a rock because he “wouldn’t be caught dead swabbing his toe nails with a cotton ball to get it off” (true story). We definitely could not survive without our sweet husbands, brothers, fathers, father in laws, grandpas, and guy friends. Despite the fact that they are really strong (one time Michael picked up the back end of THIS and moved it like 6 feet when we got stranded in the wilderness up at Bruce and Lisa’s cabin… it weighs the same as a small car!), handsome, sweet, logical, and bless our homes and lives with the priesthood… we also need our girls. I feel so blessed to have Malyce and Lauren that I can talk to about all of my health, fitness, and work concerns; Merrick that I can talk to about family, parenting, and the BIG PICTURE (aka everything); Savanna, Hillary, and Dani that are such LOYAL soul mates of mine that listen and are invested in everything that matters to me; Michelle that I can call for FRESH insight, inspiration, and spiritual guidance; my MOM that has her feet CEMENTED to my side of the story and will always answer and listen and listen and listen to what I have to say; and so many other sweet women and positive role models in my life. I’m also grateful for my blogger friends, former roommates, high school confidantes, and girls I meet at wedding receptions... they always seem to say just what I need to hear.


During our marriage I have tried to explain the concept of girl friends to Michael and it didn't really click until a couple of days ago when my mother-in-law Cindy sent me the following article. I forwarded it on to Michael and he felt like he understood where I was coming from a lot better.

"I just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection - the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.

At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.

Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality “girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin - a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel about certain things or how their personal lives are going. Jobs? Yes. Sports? Yes. Cars? Yes. Fishing, hunting, golf?

Yes. But their feelings? Rarely.

Women do it all of the time. We share from our souls with our sisters/mothers, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged—not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking!

So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health! We are indeed very, very lucky. Sooooo let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health."