How Connection Can Cure What Ails Us

In our modern world, where isolation, loneliness, and stress are at all-time highs, how do we fend off the feelings—and the medical symptoms—that plague such an outsized percentage of our species?Journalist Julia Hotz’s new book, The Connection Cure: The Prescriptive Power of Movement, Nature, Art, Service, and Belonging, explores the phenomenon of social prescribing, a medicine-adjacent approach being adopted in the UK that sees doctors prescribing things like “sea swimming” (yes, really!) and has the potential to alleviate not only the health burdens many of us face in our daily lives but also the pressures on the medical system and the heavy costs of medical care. In this episode, I talk with Julia about what inspired her to write The Connection Cure and the incredible and surprising results of her extensive research. Discover how social prescribing could take you from asking, “what’s wrong with me?” to “what matters to me?” instead:Defining and demystifying the concept of social prescribing;How reconnecting with how we used to live can drastically improve our health;Where our deep-seated misconceptions about mental health come from;Whether social prescribing stands a chance of taking hold in the U.S.Related Links:Order Julia’s book - https://www.socialprescribing.co/Find Julia on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/hotzthoughts/Episode 172, The Healing Power of Nature - https://www.bossedup.org/podcast/episode172Episode 440 - The Problem with Self-Help - https://www.bossedup.org/podcast/episode440Bossed Up Courage Community - https://www.facebook.com/groups/927776673968737/Bossed Up LinkedIn Group - https://www.linkedin.com/groups/7071888/The Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams - https://bookshop.org/p/books/the-nature-fix-why-nature-makes-us-happier-healthier-and-more-creative-florence-williams/16616779?ean=9780393355574How to take the news that depression has not been shown to be caused by a chemical imbalance by Dr. Joanna Moncrieff - https://joannamoncrieff.com/2022/07/24/how-to-take-the-news-that-depression-has-not-been-shown-to-be-caused-by-a-chemical-imbalance/Dopesick by Beth Macy - https://bookshop.org/p/books/dopesick-dealers-doctors-and-the-drug-company-that-addicted-america-beth-macy/16344771?ean=9780316551304