Well-being Journey - CONNECT

What can I do to help my own well-being?

For University I am doing a project as one for my modules which is to look at how you can help the community and my project focuses on well-being. From my research I have found there are 5 main routes to help with well-being: Connect, Be Active, Take Notice, Keep Learning and Give. This means that over the next week or so I will be diving in deeply to each of these ways and essentially being my own guinea pig so you at home can try these out for yourself.

What is Well-being?

I think it's first of all important to identify what Well-being actually is. According to the English Dictionary the definition of well-being is 'the state of being comfortable, healthy or happy'. However, many people feel this is a simplified version of what the term actually means. It can also include peoples satisfaction with life and who they are and therefore everyone's well-being will be different and needs to be catered specifically to them. It's about quality of life and being in a place mentally and physically that you can thrive.

What does 'Connect' mean?

As I said, the first on the list is 'connect'. Connection to friends and family really help to boost our mental health which is why this one is so important. This can include your ability to talk to friends about anything, reaching out and staying in touch with family and meeting new people.

Intimate relationships is actually key to our needs and is included in Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs which is a pyramid that that looks at our basic human needs like food, warmth, rest etc. to more self-fulfillment needs such as achieving your full potential and creative activities. Within the middle of the pyramid after all basic needs are met is the concept of 'Belonging and love'. This idea shows that one of the most important things we as humans need after our key needs to keep us living are met is human connection.

What I plan to do:

- Help strengthen connections with current friends - I plan to do this by talking about personal things, writing 'thank you' notes for a friend (or a letter) or plan more face to face time.

-Meet up with friends you're not that close with or haven't had time to see recently - I plan to do this by making coffee dates or a lunch date.

- Connections with family - As I live away from family for Uni it can be hard to keep that tight connection so I plan to do regular video calls and catch up.

- Time away from phones and screens - This means not sitting and watch TV together or sitting on phones but perhaps playing a game or doing something active.

Results

- Help strengthen connections with current friends:

Recently I had been suffering badly from anxiety and instead of bottling it up I approached my close friends about what was going on. According to the Psychology Today website, being honest is one of the 5 ways to maintain a lifelong friendship because being truthful and open takes the relationship from being superficial to real. This helped my connection with my friends and showed me I wasn't alone to help tackle my anxiety better.

- Meet up with friends you haven't had time to see recently:

I asked my friend, Asha, if she would like to meet for coffee because, due to deadlines, we hadn't had much of a chance to catch up and see each other. This was not only good for me to talk to a friend I hadn't had the chance to see in a while but also allowed her to update me on some of the things in her life as well. In the same case study on Psychology Today another step to maintaining a good friendship is making time and showing appreciation.

- Connections with family: 

I made sure to video chat my family at least once a week to be able to actually see them and talk. Having the face to face connection makes me feel more included when family are all talking so it helps me feel like I'm there even when I'm over 2 hours away.

-Time away from phones and screens: 

I did this by actually getting out the house and going bowling with my friend, Ellie. According to a Government report on social media and screen use it showed that long periods of time spent on social media can have bad results on peoples well-beings but it is unsure if they add to already bad well-being or are the cause. Either way I felt it best to take an afternoon away from phones and computers and play an interactive game. This not only boosted my well-being taking time with a friend face to face but helped me feel more active.

Let me know at home what you do to help with connections with friends and if there was anything in this you didn't know or hadn't tried before!