Social Wellness

The University of New Hampshire has identified three areas that are the most important for your social wellness. Having lots of friends and acquaintances isn’t the pinnacle of being socially well. You have to take into account how you communicate, how healthy each relationship is and how you can manage your stress. Check out these three areas and see how you do.

1. Communication

It’s not what you say, it’s how you say it. Communication is the first and most important factor in social wellness. How we interact with others around us is the foundation for our social well-being. The key is to keep your style of communication between passive and aggressive. Being too passive in your communication will only let people walk all over you and keep you from getting what you want out of the situation. Being aggressive will alienate you from the people around you, as it will seem like you only care about getting what you want. You can find middle ground by asserting yourself while still being considerate of everyone else. Be sure your wants and needs are being communicated while making sure other people know you are being considerate of their wants and needs too.

2. Healthy relationships

Healthy relationships aren’t only about how you relate to your significant other, it matters in all your relationships – friends, family members and coworkers, etc. Relationships should involve mutual trust, respect and understanding. Along with a speaking style, listening is important to every relationship. Healthy relationships are all about reciprocation. A friendship shouldn’t be about you dumping your problems on your friend, then not listening to her when she is having a tough time. Listening to each other and helping each other out is key to every type of relationship as well meeting new people.

3. Stress management

Along with healthy relationships and the ability to communicate comes the need to set boundaries for yourself. Sometimes the people in your life will ask you to do something for them and it’s impossible to keep them all happy. If your coworker wants you to cover a late shift for him, while your sister asks you to babysit and your friends want to hang out, you will have to say ‘no’ to keep you from taking on too much. Stress management is also about knowing how much you can handle: if you can handle working 8 hours, then hitting the gym, then going out with your friends all on a Friday night then that’s fine. But if you will only be worn out and frazzled by all this, then it’s fine to exercise in the morning and tell your friends you can do another night. Also, don’t forget to find a creative and productive outlet for your stress. While it’s tempting for many people to use drinking, drugs and other bad habits to handle stress, it will only cause more problems in the long run. For more on healthy stress relief, go here.