Social Wellness

When we and I think of social wellness, we think in terms of our Insta, Twitter, or FB accounts. Instead, what social wellness is really about is how comfortable we are with ourselves. How great we feel in our current state with ourselves and with others. Than at the same time how great we are at valuing diversity or treating others with empathy, compassion, and yes love. This usually comes from a wellspring of sources like friends, family, and our coworkers. There is social leadership, which is a unique ability in of itself to bring people together, create a common agreement to work together, and drive groups in the same direction for a common cause. Nelson Mandela for example would be coined as a social leader in all the work he did with apartheid. Mother Theresa. Gandhi.

This quote establishes what we need to practice to have better social wellness:

Being who we are requires that we can talk openly about things that are important to us, that we take a clear position on where we stand on important emotional issues, and that we clarify the limits of what is acceptable and tolerable to us in a relationship. – Harriet Lerner

Some elements absolutely necessary to healthy wellness in this area are:

• Great communication skills to get your thoughts across to others and connect
• A deep respect for yourself as well as others around you
• A stable and deep support system of family members and friends

One the biggest reasons I co-created a run club with some other passionate runners, was to accomplish all three of those things mentioned above. I get to run with people that talk and communicate around the same passion. I’m impacting my personal efforts in achieving greater physical wellness, which is respecting myself. I also have respect for what my fellow runners are able to accomplish and overcome. It’s a deep support system around running that helps me complete longer and longer runs.

I try to make some kind of commitment each week in my goals to family or friends. Prioritizing my family/friends in my commitments make sure that I take that time out to be with them. This is a major component of social wellness that typically gets prioritized last in our business, instead of first. Facebook some how becomes our priority instead of reaching out with a phone call to our siblings, mother and father.

Just like physical wellness I shared earlier this week, you can make social wellness work in combination with other dimensions so you feel less anxiety about doing them all individually each day. Here’s some ideas:

• Above, I mentioned joining a physical group like a run group or a gym group. You get the social and physical at the same time.
• Join a book club at your local library or a writers guild. You’ll be engaging socially with others in a similar hobby as well as intellectually getting some stimulation.
• Grab a group of friends or family and volunteer to pick up waste on the road. You’ve got the social aspects of being together, your focused on doing some kind of physical activity through walking together, and your being environmentally focused by picking up garbage on the road.
• Start a blog! Grab some followers and be a follower. This one is more virtual than physical in it’s efforts.

We need to be more focused in being less isolated in our social activities. Social wellness can help us unlock what’s possible through common commitments and passions we can find in others. You can create a movement through social wellness work together.

Next up, we will take a look at emotional wellness as we get closer to the end of this week. Thanks for reading and I hope you’re week is going well.

Shawn