When we’re kids, we have school and extracurriculars to keep us socially engaged and frequently meeting new people. The older we get, however, the less opportunity there seems to be for meeting new people.

But as the world faces a startling loneliness epidemic, it’s never been more important to seek connections in your community and keep friendships strong.

As psychotherapist Annette Nuñez, M.S., Ph.D., tells mindbodygreen, good friends can be the life raft keeping you afloat in hard times and contribute to overall feelings of well-being and community.

In fact, as one 2019 study published in the journal Innovation in Aging notes, friendships serve “a vital role for sustaining social connectedness in late life when other relationships may become unavailable.”