Welcome to the Very Well Mind podcast. We've interviewed over 100 authors, experts, entrepreneurs, athletes, musicians, and others to help you learn strategies to care for your mental health.

This episode is hosted by psychotherapist and bestselling author Amy Morin. Now let's get into the episode.

Okay. You're listening to the Friday fix.

Every Friday, I share a quick mental strength strategy that can help fix the thoughts, feelings, and actions that can hold you back in life.

What can you do with eight minutes?

For most of us, if you have a spare eight minutes until your next meeting or until your next

task begins, you might spend it scrolling through your phone or just surfing the internet.

But what if I told you that you could use those eight minutes to call a friend and become a

happier person? There's new research out from the

longest study on happiness that's ever been conducted, and they found that a quick eight-minute

phone call might be one of the easiest ways to boost happiness. Since 1938, the Harvard

study of adult development has been investigating what makes people happy. The directors of the

study recently wrote a book called The Good Life, where they share their biggest takeaways from the

study. Ultimately, they found that good relationships are the key to health and happiness.

But those relationships have to be nurtured. That's hard to do right now, right? We sometimes make socializing or connecting

with people fall kind of far down on the priority list. We get busy with work and our families

need us, and we convince ourselves that we'll spend quality time with friends and extended family

later. To live your best life, though, you shouldn't wait until later. You should make

time to get in touch with your loved ones regularly. You don't necessarily have to see your friends

and family in person, though, to get the benefits. Talking on the phone can make you a happier person.

But if you're like most people, you might never talk on the phone these days.

Phone calls have mostly been replaced by texting. And there's evidence that when we do talk on

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