Social Wellness is our ability to develop and maintain healthy relationships with individuals, groups, and communities.
Our relationships and communities can provide much needed support during difficult times. Social wellness involves building and maintaining healthy, nurturing, and supportive relationships as well as fostering a genuine connection with those around you.
Learning how to balance your social life with your academic and professional life takes practice but is important to your overall wellness.
Why is Social Wellness Important?
Social wellness allows us to build and maintain healthy relationships with others. Having a supportive social network allows you to develop assertive skills and become comfortable with who you are in social situations. Surrounding yourself with a positive social network increases your self-esteem.
Social wellness enables you to create boundaries that encourage communication, trust, and conflict management. Having good social wellness is critical to building emotional resilience. To learn the role social wellness plays in your overall health and wellness, check out the resources below.
Self Check-In
- Are you satisfied with your social life?
- Are you involved in at least one university or community group?
- Do you maintain a network of supportive friends, family, and/or social contacts?
- Do you give and take equally in your relationships?
For any of the above questions that you answered no to, try to make that an area of focus to improve your Social Wellness. If you have answered no to multiple, you may want to have this dimension be a top priority in order to benefit your overall wellbeing.
Where to start?
As you begin your journey to social wellness, you will discover that you have the power to enhance your relationships. Maintaining social wellness allows you to practice empathy and active listening. There are many ways you can begin your journey to social wellness.
- Take our self check-in to assess your social wellness! A great place to begin is first to understand where you are at in terms of your social wellness.
- Reflect on yourself and your social needs. What aspects of your social life do you enjoy? What parts would you like to improve?
- Make an effort to keep in touch with supportive friends and family.
- Practice self-disclosure. Sharing stories and details about your life with others and allowing them to do the same with you is a great way to build emotional bonds, increase trust, and is one of the building blocks of a strong social support network.
- Participate in group discussions and practice active listening.
- Join a club or organization.
Resources to Support You on Your Journey
- While many might think RecWell mostly impacts Physical Wellness, Social Wellness is a strong contender for being #1.
- Walk on the track with a friend while chatting.
- Socialize with your friends or classmates in one of our many sitting areas.
- Find community with our Group Fitness Classes.
- Pull your friends together to make an Intramural Team, or if you are more competitive make new friends by joining a Sport Club.
- The UNO Care Team is a small group of staff and faculty who work to address concerns related to health and safety within our campus community. Care Team is here to support all Mavericks who are struggling with academics, life circumstances, or any other situation. We can help by listening, providing resources, talking through options, and getting students connected with others who can help. We also provide support to faculty and staff who are concerned about a student. Anyone can submit a referral to the UNO Care Team using the Care Team Reporting Form.
- UNO strives to create a community where open, honest communication is the expectation, not the exception. UNO relies on you to speak up if you believe you have observed unethical, illegal, concerning, or suspicious behavior. Many of the university’s reporting options can be found on the MavsReport website.
- Individual counseling provides skill building and therapeutic interventions aimed at increasing comfortability with social interactions.
- Group counseling provides students with the ability to improve their social functioning and support.
- Recovery community connects students interested in recovery with each other creating a social support system.
- Gatekeeper training creates a community sense of support for individuals struggling with suicidal ideation.
- DASH has a plethora of resources to support Social Wellness! DASH Volunteering.
- Whether it is attending an HRL program or joining an academic learning community, HRL has many opportunities for residents to become involved, make connections, and meet new people!
- Project Achieve promotes Social Wellness through community and relationship building, advocating for healthy relationships, and events for students.
- End of Semester and End of Year Celebrations.
- Social events planned by peer mentors (e.g., White Elephant, DeStress Board Game Night, Halloween Party, and Friendsgiving).
- Promoting Sprit and Traditions- Project Achieve Nights (Women’s Volleyball, Women and Men’s soccer game attendance).
- Promoting Project Achieve sponsored student groups.
- Encouraging students participate in UNO’s Days of Service in collaboration with Office of Engagement.
- STSE promotes Social Wellness by building community, fostering engagement, and creating memorable experiences with signature events. Use the resources below to further your Social Wellness!
- SLII promotes Social Wellness through community and relationship building, advocating for healthy relationships, and events for students. Interested in learning more? Look through our resources below to learn more!