Come to our table

Sharing meals with others boosts happiness all around

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning,
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is to invite people to share meals with you.
You have to eat, so you may as well use

(00:24):
the opportunity to connect. An essay in the most recent
World Happiness Report claimed that sharing meals with others is
related to subjective well being and that people who share
meals with others have higher levels of life satisfaction and
positive effect. But according to the essay, we're sharing meals

(00:46):
with others less frequently than we used to. The American
Time You survey finds that one in four Americans reported
eating all their meals alone the previous day, up three
percent since two thousand and three. If people who eat
together tend to be happier, and fewer Americans are eating

(01:07):
together these days, no wonder a lot of people report
being unhappy or disconnected. Now, to be sure, it's not
absolutely certain what direction that association goes. Perhaps when people
are unhappy, no one wants to eat with them, and
so it's not the shared meal that's causing happiness. But

(01:28):
it's also pretty easy to share meals with people. And
given that you have to eat. You might use meals
as an occasion to bring more people into your life regularly.
In most cases, you and they will be happy that
you did. For instance, maybe your elderly neighbor or the

(01:48):
college student who rents the house next years might want
to join your family for dinner some night. It doesn't
have to be a fancy dinner party. My guess is
that they would be absolutely fine with the same posts
you are feeding your kids. Your work friend might be
happy to stop by after work to have pizza with
your family. Your yoga buddy might like to stop by

(02:11):
your house after class on Saturday for coffee and muffins.
Or you might build in something more regular. I know
some people who have potluck dinners on Sundays for friends
that become a major source of joy in their lives.
Everyone brings a dish and has something fun to look
forward to on Sunday evening, which wards off the Sunday

(02:33):
scarries for a few more hours. If you are on
the receiving end of invitations, well, don't hesitate to accept.
Sure there will be moments of awkwardness and you might
have to suspend your healthy eating practices for a night,
but the boosting connection and happiness may be worth it.

(02:54):
Even at work, you can regularly share meals with others.
If your office has a culture where some people eat
together in the breakroom or cafeteria, try to join in.
Can I join you works perfectly fine as an opening line.
Hopefully this is not the middle school cafeteria where this
would be an issue, and if your office doesn't have

(03:15):
that culture, you could try starting it. This could be
as simple as sending a Slack or team's message saying
you will be eating your lunch in ten minutes in
the breakroom and inviting colleagues to join you. See who comes.
If you have a good conversation, you can do it
again and have others join you the next time. It

(03:36):
will grow, It will become a thing, and work will
start being a lot more fun. We all have to
eat and we need to connect, so inviting other people
to join you at the table can be a natural
and meaningful way to take any day from great to awesome.

(04:00):
In the meantime, this is Laura. Thanks for listening, and
here's to making the most of our time. Thanks for
listening to before breakfast. If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback,

(04:20):
You can reach me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com.
Before Breakfast is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts
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