Friendships can enrich your life in many ways. Having friends teach you about yourself and challenge you to be better. They encourage you to keep going when times get tough and celebrate your successes with you. But friends do a lot more than give you a shoulder to cry on; they also have a positive impact on your health. Some research even says friendships are just as important to your well-being as eating right and exercising.

Adults with strong social connections have a reduced risk of many significant health problems, including depression, high blood pressure and an unhealthy body mass index. In fact, studies have found that older adults who have meaningful relationships and social support are likely to live longer than their peers with fewer connections.

Here are some benefits of having friends in your life

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Sense of belonging

No matter what unites you with your group of friends, simply feeling included — like you belong to a particular group — is beneficial. A sense of belonging fulfills an important emotional health need and helps decreases feelings of depression and hopelessness.

Boost self-esteem

A benefit of having friends is that they can improve your self-confidence and self-worth. A good friend is your cheerleader. “You want to have friends to share in your success who are happy for you. According to a study, belonging to a social group goes hand in hand with increased self-esteem because people take pride in these relationships and derive meaning from them.

Emotional support

If you find yourself going through a hard time, having friends to help you through, can make the transition easier. Research also shows that happiness is contagious among friends. One study found that those who were depressed were twice as likely to recover if they had happy friends.

Beat stress

Everyone goes through stressful events. If you know you have people you can count on, you may be less likely to even perceive a tough time as stressful. Having friends and spending time with them can also help reduce stress, unloading the details of a bad day onto a friend can relieve some of your own stress, she says. Physical touch can make a difference, too. A study found that receiving a hug relieved negative emotions like stress and that a positive and welcome physical touch is great for connection and health.

Push you to be your best

Friends can also provide a positive influence. If you make friends with people who are generous with their time, help others, or are ambitious or family-oriented, you are more likely to develop those values yourself. Great friends have the power to mold you into the best version of yourself. They see you and love you for who you truly are. They encourage you and push you to do better and be the person you want to be—your “ideal self.”

Personal development

If you want to create positive change in your life or have a habit you want to break, having friends can help you maintain your resolve to practice healthier habits. This may be one reason why strong friendships can lengthen your life. One way friends can help you change for the better is by providing good examples. Maybe your best friend’s recent decision to give up smoking inspires you to quit, too.

Your friends might also support your choices by making changes with you. If you want to join a gym or start running, for example, having an exercise buddy can encourage you to stick with it until it becomes part of your routine. No matter what else they do, they’ll probably cheer you on. This encouragement can boost your self-confidence, increasing your chances of success with your goals.

They can also speak up if they’re concerned about you. If you’re engaging in unhealthy behavior, friends are the ones who see it if you’re drinking too much or you’re gaining too much weight, because they’re seeing you and they’re interacting with you every day. Experts suspect that having friends have this effect on physical health because of the body’s stress response. Feeling isolated and lonely can increase chronic stress, which can negatively impact health, while the flip side — maintaining positive friendships — can keep you healthy.

They accept you the way you are

Real friends can put up with your worst behavior and be exceptionally affectionate even when you are extremely irritable. They believe in you even when you stop believing in yourself. They accept you with all your flaws and love you just the way you are.

They make you laugh

Friends have the ability to make you laugh even when everything is going wrong. Friends that used laughter and smiling not only feel better immediately but also report higher levels of satisfaction in their relationship, and stay together for longer. This shows us that laughter is an emotion that we can use with those with whom we are emotionally close, to make ourselves feel better, that is another benefit of having friends.