This is an IHeart podcast.

Guaranteed human.

Hey, this is Annie.

And Samantha.

And welcome to Steph and Ever Told You, a productive IHeart Radio.

And welcome to our last Monday mini of 2025.

I hope that everyone is doing well, whatever you're doing, taking some relaxation time,

and perhaps some alone time, which is what we're talking about today.

So recently, Bridget Samantha and I were talking about the holidays and it came up about the benefits of spending some time alone during this time of year and in general or just taking time for yourself

and why that's a good thing. Because while spending time with people is wonderful and generally

what the holidays are about, it can be a lot. It can be a lot. And especially if, you know,

it's like you finally get time off, this time off that you had to

work over time to get off, to take off. But then it's all the stress of hanging out with people,

which again can be wonderful, is wonderful, lovely, but also that's your time off. It's not necessarily

relaxing. So I wanted to talk about some of the positives of a long time. Before I get started,

we're going to talk a bit more about this, but this is different from chronic loneliness.

And to anyone who is lonely around this time, we see you,

what we're focusing on today, this is an intentional choice of having this alone time. So,

traditionally there has been a lot of hand-wringing about being alone, especially if you're single,

and perhaps until recently, especially if you're a woman.

Over the years, there have been articles about people eating alone at restaurants, oh no, are going to the movies alone.

What does it mean? And there has been a lot of research around the negative health outcomes of chronic loneliness.

...