What Is Social Wellness? 5 Ways to Boost This Under-the-Radar Health Fundamental

You exercise near-daily, add spinach to your smoothies, prioritize your sleep, and at least try to meditate. (Hey, we’re all works in progress!) But one health-related box you still might not be checking is your social wellness, or what the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) describes as having positive, healthy, and meaningful relationships with friends, family, and the community. 

The concept includes “building and maintaining relationships, how we interact with each other, and having people in the community you can turn to for support, but also for fun,” says Jessi Gold, MD, an associate professor of psychiatry and the chief wellness officer for the University of Tennessee System. “Social wellness isn’t just needed during times of strife, but to support you in the good times too.” 

Here’s what else she and other mental health experts say you should know about social wellness, how to tell if you’re socially well, and ways to improve this often overlooked but oh-so-important dimension. 

What Is Social Wellness? 

Social wellness (sometimes referred to as social health or social wellbeing) is a key pillar of your overall health and wellbeing, and includes maintaining healthy, authentic relationships with friends, family, and your community. The practice involves staying connected with your community, meeting new people, and prioritizing time spent with loved ones, according to SAMHSA. 

Babita Spinelli, a psychotherapist in private practice in New York City and New Jersey, says the term can also be used in corporations as a way for executives to think about supporting their employees’ connections to and care for one another. 

People with strong social wellness don’t all have the same habits. For extroverts, it might mean regular phone calls with loved ones, hosting a monthly book club, singing in a choir, and joining a committee at work. For more introverted people, going on an occasional long walk with a close friend could fulfill many of their social wellness needs.

“When we think about loneliness, people think it means you need a lot of people, but you really just need one,” Dr. Gold says. “It’s building a really good connection with someone where you can be open, honest, vulnerable; where you can be yourself; where you show up as yourself and are supported for that.” 

Your romantic partner, colleague, or therapist, however, shouldn’t be solely responsible for taking on that role, she adds. 

The Importance of Social Wellness 

Social wellness isn’t just a nice-to-have—it’s a need-to-have. Research shows its counterpart, loneliness, may be linked to a higher risk of mental health issues like depression and anxiety. It’s even been linked to early death. 

That’s in part because, from an evolutionary perspective, people needed to rely on one another in order to survive, with social connection needed just as much as food and shelter. As an advisory on the “loneliness epidemic” released by the Surgeon General in May 2023 put it, humans are “wired for social connection, but we’ve become more isolated over time.”  

Cultivating strong social wellness has tons of positive ripple effects, the report said. For example, people who are socially well may be more motivated to take care of their physical health, and to achieve educational and economic success. Even entire communities benefit if their members prioritize social health, leading to more resilience in the face of natural disasters, for example, and even less crime and violence, the advisory said. 

“When you think about social relationships as an adult, it’s important that you recognize you might be saying, ‘Oh, I don’t have capacity for this’ or ‘how dare you ask me to do more,’ but we also need it,” Dr. Gold says. “And so we cancel on a social event or think we don’t have time for a social event, but if we did it, we’d feel better.”

Signs of Strong Social Health 

You can’t assess your social health as easily as you can measure your height or check your bank account. But you can ask yourself some questions to gauge how socially healthy you are, Spinelli says. 

“Do you feel like you have a sense of belonging? Are you feeling like you're contributing, being valued, or valuing others?” she says. 

Dr. Gold, too, says social wellness is subjective. “When you look at yourself, what are your social needs and social capacity, and do you feel like they’re being met? What aspects of being social do you enjoy and not enjoy? And if you enjoy them, are you doing that? Where is there room for improvement?” 

How to Improve Social Health 

If your social wellness could use some fine-tuning, you’re not alone. “One would look at it and say, ‘Well, that's easy enough: volunteer, make friends, etc. etc.’ That seems so simple, but it’s not always that simple,” Spinelli says. 

People who didn’t grow up with strong examples of healthy relationship-building might feel especially behind in this department, she adds. “Sometimes we don’t know how to build human connection in the way that we need to,” Spinelli says. “And also we may have low self-esteem, anxiety, or depression,” which can dampen your desire or capacity to reach out. 

But there are steps you can take to strengthen your social muscles. Here’s what experts recommend: 

1. Work on Your Relationship With Yourself 

While self-connection might sound besides the point or even counterintuitive to social connection, Spinelli says it’s critical because strong relationships require empathy and authenticity. Put another way, knowing yourself can help someone else know you too. 

“The first tip for social wellness is practicing self-care and recognizing how significant it is to have a relationship to self and learning about what that looks like for you,” Spinelli says. 

2. Cultivate Hobbies 

Dr. Gold recommends asking yourself what you liked to do as a kid. Draw? Put on plays? Shoot hoops? Read? Art clubs, community theater, book clubs, and sports leagues all exist for adults too—and naturally put you in the vicinity of people with similar interests. Don’t overlook opportunities that tie you to a more recent past, too, like an alumni club for your college, she adds. 

3. Volunteer 

Take a passion or hobby—like animals or gardening—a step further by volunteering with a shelter or at a community garden, Spinelli suggests. Not only will you meet people with complementary values, but you’ll also be improving the lives of those you’re helping—which, in turn, may give you an emotional lift. 

The practice gives you a mental and physical boost too: Research shows that volunteers, especially those over age 60, have better physical health and less depression and anxiety than non-volunteers, the Mayo Clinic reports. 

4. Exercise With Friends 

Getting together with loved ones is almost always a fun idea, whether that’s grabbing coffee or going to the movies. Another way to promote your social health and your physical wellbeing at the same time? Working out with a friend. 

That’s part of why Peloton’s various platforms are so popular and powerful, Dr. Gold said. Whether you’re taking a class on the Peloton Tread with new friends from across the country or staying connected with old friends and family through Peloton’s Teams feature, “you’re getting social wellness because you’re not alone working out, but you’re also getting exercise, which is physical wellness too,” Dr. Gold says. 

5. Try Therapy

Therapy can tick a few boxes when it comes to improving your social health: It can help you get to know yourself better, it offers a space to connect with someone (the therapist), and it allows you to practice, and work towards, boosting your relationship skills. 

“People shouldn’t be embarrassed if they feel like they don’t know how to make friends or that it’s hard for them,” Dr. Gold says. “That’s something you could work on in therapy because therapy and the relationship with a therapist is mimicking a social situation.”

If you’re interested in learning more, SAMSHA and the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) offer helpful information on how to find a mental health professional and what to expect along the way. 

The Takeaway 

Social wellness is a key aspect of overall health that can improve your physical and mental health, while also making the community around you a safer, happier place. But it’s not always easy to know if your social health is lagging, and making and sustaining friendships doesn’t always come naturally. 

Engaging with social hobbies, including group exercise, and working with a therapist are a few of the ways to sharpen your social health. 

“At the end of the day, social wellness is paying attention to building and making sure that you continue to maintain authentic, meaningful, healthy relationships out in the world and to yourself,” Spinelli says.