SOCIAL WELLNESS

By Terry Orr

“Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” ~World Health Organization, 1948

“Wellness is the conscious and deliberate process by which people are actively involved in enhancing their well-being: intellectual, physical, social, emotional, occupational and spiritual” ~ Hatfield

Social Wellness (family, community and environment) – focuses on how you choose to define and connect with your community and the people around you. 

Physical –your body's health, which involves nutrition, exercise, promoting over-all safety and wellness, and preventing physical illness.

Spiritual (values and ethics) – to understanding your place and purpose, how you make meaning of what happens to you, and what your mind goes to for comfort and relief.

Intellectual – means feeling stimulated and engaged with learning and staying open to new ideas and perspectives.

Emotional – involves being aware of and managing your feelings, being at peace with who you are, and having the tools you need to weather life’s ups and downs.

Occupational – is the work you choose to do and how you feel it contributes to your community and fulfills you.

According to Work Smart. Life Smart –

July is Social Wellness Month and it reminds us that we need to reach out to others and build stronger social ties with family and friends. Social Wellness encourages us to develop better communications with those around us including the ability to share our feelings and needs. It involves respecting yourself and others and developing a solid social support system.

Social Wellness takes planning and effort to carve out time for those activities, as they may not happen naturally in today’s hectic world. We know from our research that socially isolated people are more susceptible to illness and have a death rate two to three times higher than those who are not socially isolated.  However people who maintain their social network and support systems do better under stress and are physically and mentally healthier.  They even achieve higher grade point averages.

So how important in Social Wellness in our daily life – one indication is the explosion of social media over the past decade.  According to eBizMBA the three top Social Media Sites (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn) average about 1.1 Billion visits each month – that is nearly one in seven people globally.  Folks reaching out to others – finding common ground – communicating – sharing – building relationships – a virtual family/home.

What we are all looking for – is balance in our lives – while sounding fairly straight forward – with our daily lives, most folks deal with the ever increasing demands on their time – and finding true balance is all to often is simply not possible.  The challenge is to prioritizes things best we can – and review what really and truly are the important things in our lives.

References and Links:

http://worksmartlivesmart.com/social-wellness-month-july/

http://www.ebizmba.com/articles/social-networking-websites 

(Photos from Google)

International Networking Week – 2013

(Google Image)

By Terry Orr

International/Global Networking has taken on an entirely new and important meaning over the past decade.  Today we live in a 24/7 environment - our blog site are view globally is just one of many enterprises that has worldwide exposure. 

(Google Image)

Networking has always been an important means of communication both in the business and personal worlds. Doctors, Vets, mechanics, appliance and home repair are a small sample of our network.

(Google Image)

As an exercise several years ago, our customer asks that each person on the team, build their “network (bubble) environment.”  Collectively we white-boarded a couple to ensure we were on the right track – then each member went away to develop their “network environment.” The results were very interesting as we began reaching out beyond the first couple of layers and discovered just how far out we can reach people. That was what the customer wanted – for us to understand our reach.  I still have mine somewhere in my files.

(Google Image)

Today, the Internet has significantly increased our capabilities to network – Facebook, Twitter, Groups, Linkedin, Trade associations and groups, newsletters, blog sites and the list goes on and on. 

(Google Image)

I personally find all of this exciting – how lucky folks are to have all these marvelous tools available – especially the younger people.  Where will be ten years from now?

World Humanitarian Day 2012

(Google Image) 

By Terry Orr

“This year’s World Humanitarian Day presents an historic opportunity to bring together one billion people from around the world to advance a powerful and proactive idea: People Helping People. That is the best way to honour the many fallen aid workers we mourn today, and to celebrate the efforts of others who carry on their noble mission by rushing assistance to those who are suffering.”

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

Every day humanitarian aid workers help millions of people around the world, regardless of who they are and where they are. World Humanitarian Day is a global celebration of people helping people.

This year’s campaign "I Was Here" is about making your mark by doing something good, somewhere, for someone else.

(Google Image) 

The World Health Organization (WHO) states:

Natural disasters, conflicts and other emergencies threaten the lives and health of millions of people every year. In the middle of such crises, thousands of dedicated humanitarian workers strive to care for those who have been affected and support local authorities to deliver assistance. On World Humanitarian Day, WHO and other international bodies are highlighting the roles performed by humanitarian workers, and remembering aid workers who have been killed or injured while performing their vital roles.

World Humanitarian Day offers the chance:

• for the public to learn more about the humanitarian community, what aid workers do and the challenges they face;
• for nongovernmental and international bodies and UN agencies, to demonstrate their humanitarian activities;
• to pay respect to those who have died or been injured in the course of their humanitarian work.

(Google Image) 

References and links:

http://www.un.org/en/events/humanitarianday/background.shtml

http://www.trust.org/alertnet/news/world-humanitarian-day-2012-and-older-people-helping-them-help-each-other/