This rings true to me. My natural tendency is to isolate, and when I do, I get weirder and have a more difficult time relating to others.<\/p>\n
New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n Our ingrained habits change us. Neurons that fire together, wire together, neuroscientists like to say, reflecting the increasing evidence that experiences leave imprints on our neural pathways, a phenomenon called neuroplasticity. Any habit molds the very structure of your brain in ways that strengthen your proclivity for that habit.<\/p>\n Plasticity, the propensity to be shaped by experience, isn\u2019t limited to the brain. You already know that when you lead a sedentary life, your muscles atrophy to diminish your physical strength. What you may not know is that your habits of social connection also leave their own physical imprint on you…<\/p>\n In short, the more attuned to others you become, the healthier you become, and vice versa. This mutual influence also explains how a lack of positive social contact diminishes people. Your heart\u2019s capacity for friendship also obeys the biological law of \u201cuse it or lose it.\u201d If you don\u2019t regularly exercise your ability to connect face to face, you\u2019ll eventually find yourself lacking some of the basic biological capacity to do so…<\/p>\n Work in social genomics reveals that our personal histories of social connection or loneliness, for instance, alter how our genes are expressed within the cells of our immune system. New parents may need to worry less about genetic testing and more about how their own actions \u2014 like texting while breast-feeding or otherwise paying more attention to their phone than their child \u2014 leave life-limiting fingerprints on their and their children\u2019s gene expression.<\/p>\n When you share a smile or laugh with someone face to face, a discernible synchrony emerges between you, as your gestures and biochemistries, even your respective neural firings, come to mirror each other. It\u2019s micro-moments like these, in which a wave of good feeling rolls through two brains and bodies at once, that build your capacity to empathize as well as to improve your health.<\/p>\n If you don\u2019t regularly exercise this capacity, it withers. Lucky for us, connecting with others does good and feels good, and opportunities to do so abound.<\/p>\n So the next time you see a friend, or a child, spending too much of their day facing a screen, extend a hand and invite him back to the world of real social encounters. You\u2019ll not only build up his health and empathic skills, but yours as well. Friends don\u2019t let friends lose their capacity for humanity.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This rings true to me. My natural tendency is to isolate, and when I do, I get weirder and have a more difficult time relating to others. New York Times: Our ingrained habits change us. Neurons that fire together, wire … Continue reading