Healthy hearts

From: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

By: Bella
Published: January 10, 2008

Although I didn’t make any hard and fast resolutions this year, I do have a concept sort of looming in the back of my mind that I want to make good on: I want my relationships to be healthier.

And this article made me happy that there’s actually a scientific correlation between women in happy marriages and their stress levels.

Now granted, this study is actually about married couples, but certainly the same principles apply to committed relationships or maybe even casually dating!

For me, healthier dating means not standing for any crap anymore. I’m willing to be flexible, compromise, and even listen to someone else’s side of the story. But I’m not going to wait around for a man who can’t make up his mind. I simply have too much life to live!

Last week we talked about dating resolutions, but what would healthier dating mean for you? Whether you’re just dating or in a full-fledged relationship, what could you do to improve your dating emotional health, thus improving your physical health?

Do you communicate well with people you’re seeing? Are you too clingy? Too standoffish? Do you take enough chances, or are you too risky in love? Do you demand too much from people or too little? Are you too choosy about who you date? Not choosy enough?

What’s ultimately going to make you healthier when it comes to dating? It it something you can accomplish immediately or something that’s going to take time to develop?

Gentlemen, the study shows that although the difference between an unhappy marriage and a happy marriage doesn’t affect men’s stress levels as much, married men do tend to live longer. Based on your personal experience, what have you done or experienced in a relationship that made you feel healthy? Have you ever had a stress-free relationship, in which a woman made things very easy for you?