How Being Social Helps You Focus at Work

The science on bonding, and how it helps you stay calm and focused in the office.

“You might think you’re pretty healthy, drinking a green smoothie on your own, but two blokes sharing a beer at the bar might actually be healthier than you in that moment”.

These are the words of Kale Brock, producer of The Longevity Film, which took him to several ‘blue zones’ around the world to discover why people in these communities were living, on average, about ten years longer than the rest of us.

Community was one of the four factors he identified (the others were attitude, nutrition, and movement), and it turns out that there is more to this than just anecdotal observations and theory, but it is grounded in science.

What is ‘Happiness’?

For the purposes of this article, I’m going to put aside the eastern idea of acceptance and disassociating from the ego-self as the pathway to happiness, and focus instead on the physiological.

What we typically think of as happiness in the west, is a healthy balance of neurotransmitters in the brain, such as dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin.