What is social wellness? It is about nurturing ourselves, others and our relationships. Social wellness consists of not only balancing our own physical, mental, and emotional health, but also actively participating as an interdependent piece of the bigger puzzle. As facilitators we are not only responsible to care for our personal connections, we also care about the greater good of society, including our communities and the environment. A larger part of them are our pupils.
We may openly communicate the needs, feelings, and thoughts of the learners to trust us and actively listen with empathy when they share with us. It involves engaging in and enjoying positive interactions with them while learning to make it leisure. Building and maintaining meaningful friendships and connections for them to propagate it further in their other spheres of life.
To cultivate social wellness the following habits are inevitable. We as facilitators must practice it before we preach.
*We should practice self care.
*We should introspect and get to know ourselves, knowing who you are, who you want to be helps —identify your needs, preferences and values and communicate them to the people around you.
*We should take responsibility for both the good and the bad and not push the blame on others.
*We should maintain friendships with individuals who respect, love, and accept us for who we are.
*We should appreciate ourselves and others.
“Lead by example. Practice what you preach or don’t preach at all. Walk the talk. Learners watch what you do more than they listen to what you say. Inspire, challenge, and encourage them to do their best by doing YOUR best!” —- Unknown
The pandemic has given us enough reason to create an environment where every individual (teachers, pupils, parents) contributed in their own way. They kept a message that one must cherish – mutual relationships, empathy, belonging, hard work, kindness, respect and taking care of health, a healthy lifestyle, and nutrition.
Online learning had the greatest impact on the quality of the learning experience and students’ mental as well as physical health. A physically active lifestyle is the need of the hour. We as facilitators must imbibe in the learners the importance of physical activities along with a healthy diet to have sustainable growth both mentally and physically. It is our responsibility as social beings to contribute to sustained social wellness. We must inculcate the habit of a healthy lifestyle which includes taking care of one’s health by indulging in physical activities, mental awareness, and a well-nourished diet.
Finally, I would like to conclude that the purpose of this mutual collaboration and helping one another is to encourage social wellness and a healthy way of life because social wellness is more vitally important to our overall health.
Healthy Mind. Healthy Body. Healthy Life.