Editorial: Connecting with our community and thriving together

Why is community connection so important? What is the research that underpins it?

November is Thrive month, a time when we come together as a UBC community to learn about, talk about, and explore ways to support our mental health. Fostering and maintaining mental health is a year-round pursuit and this year our focus is community care and social connection.   

Social connection is an essential psychological need, and the literature suggests that it is the biggest driver of happiness in our lives and the driver of engagement and productivity at work. And it goes both ways; research also suggests the lack of human connection can have negative impacts on our wellbeing.  

That is why we are focusing on community connection this year for Thrive. Social connection can lower our risk of experiencing anxiety and depression, help us to regulate our emotions, and help us to be more compassionate and have more empathy for others. It is important to note that social connection can look different for everyone, and many of us are out of practice in the social game, it can feel vulnerable to reach out or share but many of us are experiencing isolation and many people will appreciate efforts to connect. This month we encourage you to find ways to connect with colleagues in meaningful ways.   

Some tips for connecting to your community 

A great way to connect is to explore some of the events happening across our campuses during Thrive month! This year we asked the community to think about focusing on two of the Thrive 5 elements, namely ‘Saying hi’ and ‘Giving back’. Take a look at a few of the events and see which will help you connect with your colleagues and the community. Here are a few suggestions: 

• Thrive by Fire: Join us for the Vancouver Thrive kickoff event at Lee Square (outside the UBC Bookstore) for live music, cozy fireplaces and a resource fair to help us learn about, talk about, and explore ways to support our mental health together. 
• Mindful Mondays with Aisha: Join accredited Mindfulness Teacher, Aisha Tejani, to embed a structured mindfulness break into your day. Each session will cover a new topic such as focusing on gratitude, awe, interconnectedness, sounds, breath, and more.
• Thrive United Way Pit Stop: Over at UBCO, head over to the upper lobby of the gymnasium, to say Hi and give back by donating to the United Way. There will be coffee, baked goods and lots of great door prizes to be won. 
• Thrive Connectivity challenge: Open to all UBCO staff and faculty. Participate in teams of up to five, with one challenge card per team and foster wellbeing and social connection in some fun and simple ways to connect to the Thrive 5.

Giving back

These events, a much-appreciated return to on-campus social connection, are a great way to experience the Thrive 5 aspect of “Saying Hi”. And when it comes to giving back, we also feel a sense of community connection – we tend to feel good when we give back, and studies back this up. Giving back makes us happier and we can get even more from the experience based on how we think and engage in giving. UBC Social psychologist Elizabeth Dunn’s research focuses on the connection between giving and happiness and shares that globally, people who give money to charity are happier than those who don’t. It may be that giving to charity makes about the same difference for happiness as having twice as much income!  

However, spending money on others doesn’t immediately translate into feeling happier. It matters how we do it. It helps to think of generosity as a source of happiness and less of an obligation. According to Dunn, we can get more from giving when we envision how our help is making a difference and we have opportunities to share stories and connect with others.  

To boost happiness, we will be giving in ways that help us to see the difference we are making, bringing us closer to community connections, and reminding ourselves that giving is a choice we want to make.    

There are great opportunities to Thrive by giving back at UBC:  

• Donate to help with food security 
  • Vancouver 
    • Agora Café 
    • Sprouts 
    • AMS Food Bank 
  • Okanagan 
    • The Taste of Home Food Drive 
  • UBCV & UBCO 
    • UBC Meal Share Program  
• You can also Give generously to United Way campaign. 

We hope to you on-campus or virtually at one of the many Thrive events this month. 

Truelove Twumasi-Afryie and Amanda Swoboda.

References 

Diener, E., & Seligman, M. E. P. (2002). Very Happy People. Psychological Science, 13(1), 81–84. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00415 

Dunn, E. W., Aknin, L. B., and Norton, M. I. (2008). "Spending money on others promotes happiness". Science 

Thoits, P. A. (2011). Mechanisms Linking Social Ties and Support to Physical and Mental Health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 52(2), 145–161. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022146510395592