Social Prescriptions

Getting out and doing when the weather and atmosphere will allow it!

This is your permission slip to get out and meet people! I need one too!

I have been hibernating since chemotherapy ended. The immunotherapy that I am doing in combo with a very sluggish thyroid has me being a weight-gaining slug! Not to mention the hot smoky July we endured. My goal is to get out, see friends, make new friends and walk at least 7 miles a day. Right now that sounds so hard when my comfy chair and library books are calling me. I am working to overcome this dragging fatigue and do more.

Science has proven many times over that social connection is super important to our overall health and well being. Sort of like loneliness is the new smoking, it will kill you! In some countries doctors are prescribing social interaction to alleviate stress and depression.

How to meet new people when you feel like crap? Just get out and do it, sounds easy, the brain says it’s easy. But golly molly, it’s hard to take that first step and go. Actually the first step is finding the group you want to join. Early morning swimmers at the river? Walkers in the park? Hiker Babes ( find them on Facebook, chapters all over the US) are a great community for female hikers. Find a group and go. You may have to do this several times until you find the right group. Maybe join a gym and take a class or two. (This one is on my agenda but when Thursday afternoon rolls around I am doing something else!)

I am attending the weekly cancer survivor group meetings at the cancer center. While I don’t feel psychologically impacted having cancer, I enjoy the people and talking with people. I suspect that is why I worked retail and owned a store! I have tried several other groups here in Bend, not many have resonated with me, so I keep at it. All of you from the library classes rock by the way! Love you all and I hope I get to see you again this fall in a class.

Now get going! Plan a dinner for five of your friends. Invite them over, have them bring salads, you provide the main course and sweet stuff. Everyone is BYOB. Let me know how it goes. Maybe it becomes a monthly gathering with a theme.