Marissa, I'm curious. Is there research showing that there is a strong connection between friendship and our physical and mental health?

Yeah. So there's a study that found that people that were exposed to the virus that causes the common cold, for example, were less likely to actually contract the common cold when they had a diversity of support when they weren't just relying on spouse, but relying on different people for support in their lives. And there's other research that just links having a diversity of support to your general sense of well-being overall.

I love the research, Marissa, that shows that healthy, strong friendships are associated with more resilience and our other relationships. Do you mind sharing a bit more about that? Yeah.

So there's research too, because I think it's unfortunate that we sometimes perceive our romantic relationships and our friendships as antagonistic. Like, oh, you're hanging out with your friends. You're not hanging out with me. Instead of, oh, you're hanging out with your friends. That's great. Now we can have more quality connection when you come back. Definitely. Which is the truth because, you know, research finds that, for example, if I make a friend, not only am I less depressed, but my romantic partner is also likely to be less depressed. So what can improve one partner's mental health will likely improve the other partner's mental health. That's what we see when people make friends. There's research that finds that when spouses are in a state of conflict, it negatively impacts their release of the stress hormone cortisol, but not when they have that quality connection outside of the marriage as well. And so it's just like, if you're just relying on your spouse, whatever happens in that relationship is going to be so deterministic for how you're doing overall. But if you have quality connection outside of the marriage, it's like you have a buffer, you know? You kind of have a shield. You're going well. That doesn't mean that you're completely sunk internally because you can rely on these outside resources as a pick me up. Okay.