Establishing a connection is essential for many reasons. Whether that connection is with yourself, others, or nature. According to psychologists, making a connection is extremely important for our overall sense of self, our emotional and physical health. Dozen of clinical researches have shown that people are generally ‘happier’ when connected in any form of relationships.
Therefore, connecting to others, ourselves and the world give us a sense of importance and belonging. Plus, it also helps to improve our mental wellbeing and building self-esteem in communication.
As human beings are a social animal, we thrive in social connection, whether in family, groups, community or society. A strong sense of connectivity with others is vital to our mental stability and survival tendency.
Having a connection in a relationship helps us build resilience, shared interests between two or more people, shared love, support, and encouragement.
Physiologically, people with strong ties or connections in a relationship have fewer health problems, less stressed, less depressed and improved mental wellness. Adverse to the effect, people who lack connection with themselves, others or their community have increased stress and depression, accelerated cardiovascular risks, loneliness, isolation and a higher chance of suicidal tendency.
Here are some simple ways to keep a healthy connection with the people around you, to improve your mental wellness and reduce isolation and loneliness.
- Regularly reaching out and maintain a regular contact
Reaching out means making the first move. You make a conscious and considerable effort to contact the person. You do so regularly while maintaining a healthy boundary within the relationship. It means having a sense of how often you should reach out, unobtrusively. If it seems like you are the one doing all the reaching out at the majority of times, try to stay positive. You are reaching out to promote your sense of wellness by showing someone that you care. It is not a chore.
- Plan a get-together
Make plans for a get-together or planning ahead is a great way to have something to look forward to. Planning ahead for an event gives us joyful feelings as our mind is excited by the future-focused event. The anticipation of the upcoming event encourages hope and optimism. These positive thoughts promote healthy mindset and reduce stress and anxieties.
- Say that you care by showing gratitude
We love to hear positive feedback and words of affirmation. Say that you care, say that love someone makes a huge difference to the person receiving the kind words. Showing gratitude for the relationship by expressing kind words of affirmation. Say thank you is music to the ears. Be the first to say sorry for a small measure of differences or disagreements, without compromises your sense of self. Say you like about the person. Say what think is great about being in the relationship with them. Say that you appreciate their time and talking to you is soothing to the soul.
- Have a respectable boundary – give them space
Having a respectable boundary for yourself and others is extremely important within any social interaction. Establish what you think is a respectable boundary for you, and then check with the other person, what is a safe and comfortable boundary for them. A boundary is a two-way thing. It is not something that you can guess. It is safer to ask. It shows that you consider their needs. Then, act on it and put in practise by giving the person the space that they need.
- Use a medium that is most comfortable for both of you
We may take for granted what is the best medium for us, but, it may not be the best medium of contact for the other person. Check what is their preference, whether this is via phone, Skype, Zoom, Email, SMS, Facetime, WhatsApp etc. Agree with each other when you first make contact, how the person want to be connected.
- Take advantage of social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tumblr etc.)
Sometimes, social media is the best method to stay connected with someone distant. Take advantage of the social media application that you both preferred and keep the channel of communication open this way is another great way to keep in touch with multiple people, family, friends and the community. The interactions with social media is a great way to make special announcements or reaching out to a group of people for a response.
However, you decide to stay connected with the important people around you, think about the good that you are doing in staying in touch. It shows that you care. And when we do something nice for others, even the smallest of thing such as staying connected to the person makes a huge difference to both your mental wellness and physical health.
The most important things in life is the connection that you have with the people around you.