Sometimes a workplace issue is so big and so close that we just don’t see it.  Loneliness may be just such an issue.

Human beings are deeply social creatures.  We have an innate tendency to like working in groups.  We need to be part of a community, to feel connected with other people, to make some contribution to our own tribe.

Probably because of patterns that were set when our ancestors were hunters and gatherers, we are not able to thrive in isolation.  Loneliness can drain our energy and creativity, skew our judgment, drive us into depression and make us sick.

In order to do our best work we need to feel connected.  And yet a lifestyle shaped largely by the demands of professional achievement and the commute to work can leave us feeling isolated.  We may be able to link up electronically with colleagues around the world, but not have the time or energy for real social interaction.

If you want to stay healthy and highly productive, think about structuring your life so that it is rich with connections.  Work at social contacts with the same zeal that you work at staying fit.  And if you are a manager, notice whether some of your team members would be more successful if they didn’t feel so lonely.

Whether you want to invigorate your own life or help others to combat isolation, there are many strategies for forging connections.  Consider these:

Below are a book reviews, as well as links that will allow you to buy the book directly from Amazon.com. For reviews of other helpful books, along with Amazon links, go to the books page of Bev’s website. If you buy a book this way it will contribute to the cost of distributing Bev’s Tips, and be much appreciated.

Younger Next Year for Women – Live Like You’re 50 – Strong, Fit, Sexy – Until You’re 80 and Beyond, by Chris Crowley & Henry S. Lodge, M.D. 2005.

Two years ago, in their best-selling book Younger Next Year, Crowley and Lodge offered professional guys a lot of good advice about aging successfully. Younger Next Year for Women hits many of the same themes, but targets the message to women who want to live longer, healthier lives.

The authors focus much attention on ways to be physically fit, and their strongest message is that once you hit 50 you absolutely have to exercise 6 days a week for the rest of your life.

At the end of the book, however, they make a compelling case that we cannot be healthy if we don’t find ways to connect with other people.  “Connecting,” they say, “is a biological imperative….and social connections are a more powerful factor in health and mortality than smoking, alcohol, exercise, nutrition or age.”

What you have to do, they say, is make connecting a job – one that you work at regularly.

Buy this book.

Holding the Center – Sanctuary in a Time of Confusion, by Richard Strozzi Heckler, 1997.

For Heckler, “the self is not separate from community or the place in which we live and work.”

His book, he says, is an exploration of place, community and body, and “the profound inter-connectedness between these elements in our lives and how they are cornerstones for living a satisfying life.”

In this lovely little collection of essays, psychotherapist and Aikido master Heckler writes about how connecting either with the earth or with other people has the power to bring us a wonderful sense of belonging.

And at the same time, he says, we must actively manage the way we exercise and otherwise relate to our own body, because “to live disconnected from and in opposition to our bodies produces a profound sense of alienation.”

Buy this book.