The importance of social connection

Today as I headed out for a walk I waved to some neighbours in my street that I hadn’t met properly and they asked if I’d like to stop in and join them for a drink. I took them up on this and we sat on their front porch and admired their garden and talked about where we grew up and so on.

I don’t feel at all guilty about trading my walk for this acitivity. Social connection has a huge effect on our health and wellbeing (studies have suggested it has an even greater impact than being physically active, or not smoking), and I certainly felt my mood was lifted after this lovely experience.

If you’d like to improve or maintain your mental and physical health, don’t overlook the impact that including opportunities for social connection can have, whether it’s saying hello to your local postie, becoming a regular at a particular activity/library/cafe, attending a meet up group to meet new people, calling that friend you haven’t spoken to in a while or inviting someone over for a cup of tea.

If you’re interested in learning more, you can find The U.S. Surgeon General’s Advisory on the Healing Effects of Social Connection and Community here– it goes into great detail about both why it’s so important and what we can all do on an individual, community, policy and infrastructure level to create opportunities for everyone to experience connection.