Community & Connection

If it's okay, I would just like to mention that there is quite a lot of research on the importance of meaning and purpose in physical health. One of the biggest causes of disease and disability throughout our lives, as all of us know, is chronic stress. All of the fight or flight responses being switched on all the time cause wear and tear on our tissues and are linked with pretty much every chronic disease that you care to name. Having meaning and having purpose is one of those things that pops up again and again as what scientists call a biological shield. There are different biological shields. Social connection is a really important biological shield, but meaning is also really important. That's been shown all the way down to levels of gene expression in people's white blood cells, to the cells of their immune system actually being pushed away from inflammation and towards anti-tumor and antiviral responses in people who have a greater meaning, a greater purpose.