Social wellness refers to our relationships and how we interact with others. Good social health can boost our well-being, and those in our social circles can offer support during difficult times. Social wellness involves building healthy and supportive relationships, along with creating a genuine connection with those around you. 1
Why is Social Wellness Important?
Working on social health skills will help you build healthy relationships with others. Having a healthy and supportive network helps you build assertive social skills and feel more comfortable in social situations. Social wellness in addiction recovery can lead to healthier habits that create high success rates in maintaining sobriety.
How Can Social Wellness Help Me?
There are many ways that having good social health can benefit you in addiction recovery and everyday life.
Improve Your Overall Health
Having good mental and social health can improve your overall health and well-being. Studies have shown that people who have healthy relationships tend to live longer and respond better to stress. Reducing stress can also lead to a more beneficial endocrine system, better cardiovascular functioning, and an improved immune system. 2
Promote Mental Wellness Improved social health will also promote mental wellness. If you struggle with mental health issues like depression or anxiety, working on developing positive social health can be an excellent step to take towards mental wellness. Having positive mental wellness and a positive outlook on life will help keep you on track during addiction recovery.
Reduce Feelings of Isolation Feelings of isolation can be hard on anyone’s mental health and well-being, especially those who struggle with addiction. Improving your societal connection can help boost your mood and give you a sense of belonging in everyday life.
Foster Positive Relationships Building social health skills fosters positive relationships in your everyday life. You will see many benefits from having good social health at the workplace, in school, in relationships, and daily social interactions.
Enable Better Self-Care Positive social health promotes better self-care. When you partake in social health activities, you will notice that you begin taking better care of yourself in your everyday life. Healthy social habits and caring for others will also lead to better habits and care for yourself.
Signs of Social Wellness
Signs of good social wellness include:
Development of assertiveness skills, not passive or aggressive ones
Balancing social and personal time
The ability to be who you are in all situations
Becoming engaged with other people in your community
Valuing diversity and treating others with respect
Remembering to have fun
Having a supportive network of family and friends
Types of Well-Being
When looking at the social dimension of health, it’s important to recognize the different types of well-being.
Emotional Well-Being
Improved social health will lead to better emotional well-being. Emotional well-being refers to producing positive emotions, thoughts, moods, and feelings. Good emotional well-being also allows us to adapt to stress or when confronted with adversity. 3
Physical Well-Being
Good mental and social health can also lead to better physical well-being. Physical well-being involves our daily behaviors that ensure health, help avoid diseases and health conditions, and to live a balanced life. 4
Workplace Well-Being Working on social health skills will improve your workplace well-being. Your workplace well-being includes your attitudes and behaviors while at work. It can create better work habits and better relationships with your co-workers.
Societal Well-Being Social health activities will also benefit societal well-being. The social dimension of health can benefit everyone as a society. Acting in the community can be the first step toward eliminating social health issues.
How Do We Measure Social Health & Wellness?
If you’re looking for ways to improve social health, you may also want to know how we can measure our social health and wellness so you can keep track of your progress. While there isn’t necessarily a numerical scale to measure our social health goals, we can look at our happiness in parts of our daily lives to determine levels of social satisfaction.
Areas of your life you can look at are your work life, marital or relationship satisfaction, your social life, and community involvement. If you feel you could use improvement in any of these areas, you can make a social health goal to improve social health in your relationships further.
Negative Side of Social Relationships
While developing social relationships is good, there can be downsides to them. Not all social relationships are healthy due to several factors. Social health issues can also be caused by the people we surround ourselves with. If you are looking for ways to improve social health, you should also look at the people you surround yourself with to ensure they are fostering healthy behaviors and attitudes within your life.
How to Improve Your Social Wellness
You can use the following social wellness tips to improve your social health skills.
Surround Yourself with Good People
One of the most important aspects of the social dimension of wellness is the people you surround yourself with. Look at the social aspects of your relationships to ensure that you are surrounding yourself with positive people who want the best for you. Your social circle can help you during addiction recovery and keep you on the right track.
Practice Self-Care
When trying to eliminate unhealthy habits for social health, you must practice self-care. Exercising, eating right, and creating a positive self-image are all good social health traits that will get you on the right track.
Engage in Hobbies and Extracurriculars
If you are looking for social wellness ideas to improve your well-being, one of the best things you can do is participate in hobbies and extracurriculars. Positive hobbies act as daily activities for social wellness that will keep you in a good state of mind. Hobbies can also be a good distraction to maintain healthy habits during addiction recovery.
Stick to a Healthy Routine
To get the most social health benefits, it’s important to stick to a healthy routine. Working out, eating healthy, getting enough sleep, and managing your stress levels are all good ways to improve social wellness.
Continue Working on Better Communication
If you are trying to improve your interpersonal social wellness, you should continue working on good communication skills. Better communication skills will benefit your interactions with anyone in your daily life and improve your relationships over time.
Find More About Social Wellness at Genesis Recovery
Genesis Recovery offers many addiction treatment services to help you improve your social wellness. Recovery programs at Genesis Recovery will focus on building life skills, working in groups, and developing interpersonal skills that will help you build a positive social circle that creates higher rates of success in recovery. Contact ustoday to learn more about how Genesis Recovery can help you.
