For this week’s self-care Sunday, we’re looking at our social self-care, and in particular, connecting with family and friends to support our wellbeing. Whether you’re an introvert or extrovert, the majority of us need connection with others, that human interaction, to help us get through the tough times, help to us feel good, and fill us up.
However, just to note, not all families or even friends make us feel good, and some people can feel quite toxic in our lives – if certain relationships make us feel unhappy or stressed, then these won’t be the ones we go to for our self-care and wellbeing needs. This isn’t about connecting with people because you feel like you should – this is about connecting with people because it will make you both feel good.
In whatever capacity we can (because last thing we want to do is over social schedule ourselves and make ourselves feel worse), we can organise regular face time with family, have coffee dates with our best mate, or even set up a fortnightly quiz (if we’re not done with them by now) or board game evening. It’s important to inject some social fun back into our lives – laughing makes us feel better and hugging gets our happy hormones going.
On the other side of that, speaking to people about what’s going on in our lives or any struggles we might be facing can be helpful too. Talking to friends or family can sometimes help us to feel better, and maybe other people are experiencing similar things to us and can offer advice or are just an understanding shoulder to cry on.
Maybe we even have some family and friends that we’re not as close to anymore but would like to be – what can we do to change that? How can we bring our community of people back together again?
In whatever capacity, connection can be really important to our wellbeing – and making sure we keep our connections strong, or do little things to make them stronger, can be super beneficial to us, and others.
Take care.
Self-Care Sunday | Connection
