July is Social Wellness Month. It focuses on highlighting the importance of maintaining and nurturing healthy relationships with family, friends, colleagues, and community networks in people’s lives. We all know that strong relationships and a healthy support system that can hold us accountable are important keys to recovery. Human beings are social beings; we are wired for connection from infancy. Throughout our lifespan, our social connections with others change as we age, but remain a fundamental part of our mental wellbeing.

There are many benefits of social connection and support: emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual. Mental health can improve; people can live longer and healthier lives and may have a greater impact on their communities. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, loneliness has become its own epidemic, in a sense. A way to combat this, individually and socially, is to engage with others, within your community, and other social outlets.

What does your social support network look like? Do you have several people that you can count on no matter what? Those 3am people that you know will answer the phone if you are in need? Quality over quantity is important…having a close-knit group of friends and family members has shown to improve overall well-being. Each support person or group can come with its own challenges (family members vs friends vs community networks) and can offer us different perspectives and levels of accountability, all benefiting to our mental health and wellbeing.

According to the Mayo Clinic and the Center for Disease Control, having a strong support group can:

• give you a sense of belonging and purpose
• lower your stress level (and we all can benefit from that!)
• help reduce the risk of chronic disease and serious illnesses (heart disease, stroke, dementia)
• improve your self-esteem and can lower symptoms of depression and anxiety
• give you an outlet when you are facing hardships, grief, loss, or struggling with your mental health
• help you promote a healthy lifestyle (Pickleball, anyone?!!?!)
• create new experiences and memories with others. When is the last time you went on an adventure with someone close to you? How did you feel during the experience and what did it bring up for you?

What about the other side of social support? You being the one giving the support, after being on the receiving end. The benefits are similar and can be just as effective. It creates a positive feedback loop between you and the other person. That person learns that they can rely on you in their time of need, just as they supported you when you were struggling. That social connection you have with that person (your family member, best friend, significant other) can strengthen, increasing trust within the relationship.

So how can you build and strengthen your social support networks and increase connection within your existing relationships? Here are a few tips to try:

• Volunteer: this is a great way to connect with other like-minded people, while helping out a cause that you support
• Find a social group that engages in a hobby that you enjoy. Like photography? Cooking? Running? Dancing? Painting? Crafting? Playing boardgames? Try a MeetUp in your community.
• Offer to help a friend in need. Do you know someone who may need a ride to a doctor’s appointment? A mom that needs a few hours of time out of the house…offer to watch her children for the afternoon.
• Find a spiritual or faith-based community to get involved with.
• Deepen your existing relationships by initiating time together over a meal or a new experience.
• Have those difficult conversations with the people that you love. This may feel really challenging for you, but relationships take time, effort, and work for them to function in a healthy way. No relationship is without some bumps in the road, and communication is a critical part of strengthening the bond between to people.

Make a list of those people in your life that you can rely on. Those folks who have supported you throughout your life, childhood to the present. Make time to connect or reconnect with a few of them this month. The benefits will be good for both of you and the relationship that you have with that person will continue to foster and grow, all benefiting your emotional, mental, physical, and spiritual wellbeing. You will be glad you made those connections!