Social wellbeing

Meaningful social connections are important for our mental wellbeing, physical health and can even help us live longer. In fact a lack of social connection may pose a similar risk to smoking, obesity and lack of exercise.

Social connection is important because it gives us feelings of purpose, belonging and self-worth that are integral to positive mental wellbeing.

Social support can be helpful in combating stress and improving mood, reducing the risk of depression. You can receive this social support from friends and family, through the context of talking therapies.

You can also incorporate social wellbeing with the other self-care pillars. Eating a healthy meal, exercising, getting out into nature and sharing our emotions with friends and family can be really beneficial.

We are all different in what level of social connectedness we need and what feels good. The key is quality, not quantity.

Whereas meeting friends and family in person can be extremely rewarding for many people, it may also feel quite draining and tiring to many of us. We can get our dose of social connectedness from many different ways. This could be through writing a letter, an email or an online game as well as in person. In person meetings can vary in their length and intensity too, and we need to set our own boundaries for what works for us.

Loneliness

Despite the importance of social connection, loneliness is more common than most people think, even in veterinary roles where we are continuously interacting with people at work. An interaction with someone else does not always bring social connection. In fact, interactions without social connection can exacerbate our feelings of loneliness.

This can be a hard thing to both recognise and admit to ourselves. For more information on this, you can read a description of loneliness in the veterinary profession and please remember Vetlife Helpline is available for you to talk 24/7 on 0303 040 2551, or contact us through our website.

Ways to find social connection

Here are some suggestions for how to build social connection into everyday life:

  • Connect with family members:
    • Turn off the TV, instead consider playing a board game or playing some music.
    • Have designated family time on a regular basis, this could be a daily or weekly meal or another activity such as a walk that you as a family enjoy.
  • Spend quality time with colleagues away from work:
    • Spending time with colleagues away from a work environment can increase our social bonds, which may make interactions at work feel more connected and more positive.
    • This can be a spontaneous coffee, walk or a regular arrangement to share a common interest like rock climbing, a squash/ tennis match, crafting or even a team building experience like a group hike, or raising money for a charity.
  • Try to meet new people:
    • Meeting new people and increasing and diversifying our social connections strengthens our feeling of social integration and belonging.
    • This can be particularly rewarding if we meet others who share a common interest. Sharing the things we enjoy with others is a good way to experience social connection.
    • Meeting new friends in person isn’t for everybody. You can also connect digitally, just make sure you do this safely and keep the balance between offline and online time. Maintaining the other pillars of wellbeing can help with this. MIND offers useful advice on how to connect with others online safely.
  • Join a group or community that you can give something to:
    • If you have time, you may like to volunteer for a charity or within your local community as this can boost a sense of belonging and purpose.
    • This could be a religious or spiritual group.
What to do if you struggle with social connection?

If you have experienced difficulty forming social bonds and feelings of social connection you may consider external support with this, through perhaps therapy or a certified health coach.

The solution is different for us all, and it may well not be anything that you are doing wrong, perhaps you have not yet found the right people or setting in which to connect. Practicing self-compassion may help making social connections by increasing self-kindness, emotional resilience and reducing fears of judgement or rejection. (Please see the Vetlife Compassion Fatigue resource here).

You can also try to make social interactions less pressured like going for a walk or being in a group setting where how much you talk is up to you.

Useful resources:
Self care
Mental wellbeing
Emotional wellbeing
Physical wellbeing
Environmental wellbeing
Spiritual wellbeing
Social wellbeing
Recreational wellbeing