Are your relationships supporting or sabotaging your health?
If January is about hitting reset and recommitting to healthier habits, February reminds us of something just as important: social health. We’re paying closer attention to it now because relationships and human connection are just as vital to well-being as food, movement, and rest.
You can follow the ideal nutrition plan, exercise regularly, and prioritize sleep, but if your relationships are consistently stressful, even these simple health habits feel exhausting to maintain.
As Valentine’s Day approaches, it’s a good opportunity to notice how the people around us affect our energy, mood, and overall health. Being with the right people makes it easier to stick to healthy routines, gives us impactful energy, and brings the kind of peace that lets us truly rest and sleep well at night—all important to our overall well-being.
What really happens inside your body when relationships nourish or drain you
Who do you wake up for every morning? And what truly keeps you motivated to take care of yourself? It can’t be about you alone. Because what is the value of good health, personal achievements, and a better quality of life if there is no one to share them with?
Our sense of purpose is deeply connected to the people we spend our days with—those we love, those we work with, and those we give our energy to.
• When the connection feels safe and supportive: Living with someone you trust, who makes you feel confident, and with whom you can openly communicate your thoughts, fears, dreams, and joys, helps activate oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. These happy hormones play a powerful role in regulating stress, mood, appetite, and even weight.
• When conflict happens: A single argument with someone can trigger bodily changes—mood-regulating hormones decline, heart rate variability decreases (while stress increases), blood sugar and insulin levels rise, and blood pressure increases. In this sympathetic state, the drive to follow through on exercise routines, balanced meals, and recovery rituals often suffers.
•Long-standing relationship conflict: When relationship conflicts go unresolved, and feelings are consistently ignored, the body stays in a state of chronic stress, which can affect immunity, weight management, and overall health, resulting in debilitating mental and physical diseases.
How to improve social health this year
The goal isn’t to have a perfect social life, but to be intentional with where your energy goes since the quality of your relationships directly influences stress levels, energy, and overall health.
1. Clarify goals and plans for social connection
Being intentional about your social life is just as important as setting goals for nutrition, exercise, and sleep. The examples below are simply guides. You need to modify or create goals that fit your own life.
• With your spouse or partner: Communicate constantly and create a home environment that supports overall health. Discuss ways to reduce daily stress, plan nourishing meals, move regularly, and protect time for good quality sleep
• With your children: Model healthy habits that everyone can follow and commit to at home. Set clear boundaries that respect time for important health and wellness rituals
• With close friends: Devote time to meaningful shared experiences—even simple ones—that support each other’s well-being
• With coworkers: Foster a culture of openness and motivation in the workplace by supporting healthy habits, genuine communication, and shared accountability to create a more productive and positive work environment
2. Be more aware and act on relationships that drain your energy
Isn’t it true that there are those people you encounter who simply feel heavy to be around? After spending time with them, you notice a lingering tension—your breath speeds up, your patience shortens, and your stress rises.
Simplifying life also means creating distance from relationships that consistently leave you feeling emotionally depleted and give you constant glucose spikes. If you’ve spent a long time trying to regulate the situation, this may be the moment to approach it differently for the sake of your health.
You can:
• Choose to spend less time together
• Protect your energy by limiting interactions, offering fewer explanations, and being aware of the environments you share
• Stop forcing yourself to maintain connections with people who consistently criticize or fail to respect you as you are
3. Deepen relationships with the people who remind you of your purpose
One of the most common regrets people express later in life is choosing work and busyness over the presence and attention they could have given their loved ones. Prioritize relationships worth investing your time and energy in. Do not allow work or distractions to constantly take charge of the quality time you should be sharing together.
Look at your calendar and intentionally schedule moments when you can be fully present. And while spending time together, have open conversations about how you can support one another’s physical, mental, and emotional health throughout the year.
You can discuss healthy rituals, habits, and experiences like:
• Updated health checkups
• Nourishing foods to keep at home
• Simple recipes to try together
• New workouts to explore
• Practical habits for better sleep
• Stress and energy management strategies
• Wellness escapes
4. Don’t let others break you—or your day
Life is never perfect. Even with the best intentions, unexpected conflicts, difficult interactions, or even social media can easily derail an entire day. What truly matters is how you respond.
After a stressful encounter with someone, hearing a comment about your weight, or seeing a post that makes you feel less about yourself, it’s easier to reach for comforting high-sugar or ultra-processed foods and decide to skip your exercise session. Yeah, these may offer temporary relief, but they often leave you feeling heavier and more depleted right after.
5. Support the people you connect with most
Showing love to your family, close friends, and those you interact with daily goes far beyond financial or material help. Often, it’s the small, consistent acts of care that create the biggest impact on both your well-being and theirs.
Make it a simple intention to do at least one meaningful good deed each day for someone you care about. This practice alone can elevate your mood, increase positive hormones, and give you a sense of fulfillment that words can’t fully capture.
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