Friendship is Key to a Long, Healthy, and Happy Life

San Francisco, CA (August 25, 2010) – We all know about the importance of friendship to staying happy and socially engaged, but here’s another reason to make sure you keep making those weekly dates with your BFFs: According to recent findings, they might be literally saving your life. The July 2010 PLoS Medicine journal reports that having the support of a great circle of friends increases your odds of survival by 50%. (That’s more than quitting smoking.)

The news comes as no surprise to The Friendship Circle, a network of five organizations committed to celebrating the power of female friendships. Made up of experts in the fields of psychology, social media, and relationships, the Friendship Circle is dedicated to espousing publicly what we already know intuitively: that meaningful friendships are essential to living a healthy, happy, and fulfilled life. And this September, the community will come together to launch a special event: The Month of Friendship.

The Month of Friendship kicks off during the week of August 30^th, with a cross-platform series of blog posts on each of the five participating websites. Each founder will each write a post in her particular area of expertise, with one post appearing on all five websites each day.

The community effort is designed to increase women’s awareness of the resources available to them in finding and fostering healthy friendships, and to continue promoting the importance that female friendships play in boosting our health and emotional well being.

Members of the circle include:

The Friendship Blog – Produced by psychologist, professor of psychiatry, and author Dr. Irene S. Levine (The Friendship Doctor), The Friendship Blog is the only authoritative place for women on the internet to anonymously ask and receive advice about their friendship problems and dilemmas. The blog was created in 2007 and helped create the platform for Dr. Levine’s recent book, “Best Friends Forever: Surviving a Breakup With Your Best Friend.”

GirlFriendCircles.com - The only online community that matches new friends offline by connecting circles of women in local areas. In over 25 cities and growing fast, women between 21-65, are matched and introduced to each other in small groups at local cafes and wine bars to meet other women who value expanding their circle of face-to-face friends. Founder Shasta Nelson, a life coach, blogs weekly on women’s friendship issues.

Girlfriendology.com – The online community for women based on inspiration, appreciation and celebration of female friendship. Girlfriendology offers inspiring blogs, BlogTalkRadio podcast interviews with amazing women, girlfriend gifts, online communities and more. Founded in 2006 by Debba Haupert, Girlfriendology has a large and growing social media community of 19k+ Twitter followers (& we block men!) and 7k+ female Facebook fans.

GirlfriendCelebrations - is the premier source of girls night ideas on the web. Founded by friends Dawn Williams Bertuca and Tina VanZant Bishop in 2005, the blog offers original ideas for girls night in, girls night out, girlfriend get-togethers and girlfriend getaways. Believing that “Girlfriends Make Life Better™,” these girlfriends take women beyond “bunco” and deliver fun and meaningful ways for female friends to stay connected.

MWF Seeking BFF – written by Rachel Bertsche, MWF Seeking BFF chronicles the author’s search for a new best friend after moving to a new city for love. In her daily posts, Bertsche reveals anecdotes from her quest, shares resources for meeting new people, and wonders about modern-day friendship conundrums. MWF Seeking BFF the book will be published by Ballantine in early 2012.

For more information on The Friendship Circle or the Month of Friendship, please visit the websites listed above and Contact Amy Cunha, BigPicture PR, 415.362.2085  415.362.2085   or amy@bigpicpr.com.

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Tags: friendship circle, national women's friendship month, press release, women's health

This entry was posted on Wednesday, August 25th, 2010 at 8:33 pm and is filed under Be a Better FRIEND, Newsroom. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.