Pastoral Care

Connecting With Others for a Healthy Headspace

Putting time into your relationships can help you feel connected, boost your energy and, ultimately, keep your headspace healthy.

Relationships and your mood

Healthy relationships are super important for your mental health. When you spend time with people you care about, who care about you, this can help you feel connected and supported.

Yet, we know relationships aren’t always easy. Starting new relationships can often be scary. And if you’re experiencing mental health difficulties you may feel like disconnecting from people, rather than reaching out.

But here’s the thing – the more you work on your relationships, the stronger they get. Strong relationships can give you support when you need it and provide a sense of belonging and community. When you spend time connecting with and supporting others, your wellbeing improves, too!

Investing in relationships can improve your mood by:

• boosting your energy

• improving your sense of belonging

• helping you relax

• helping you feel supported.

Ask an expert: how can I work on my relationships?

Our headspace team have the following tips for navigating relationships.

• Focus on positive relationships that make you feel good about yourself. Build relationships where you support each other and where you feel you can be yourself.
• Every relationship can bring you different benefits, so try to keep a variety of people in your life, such as friends from work or school, teachers, parents, people who have similar interests and more.
• Communication is important. When you are open with people, they will be more open with you – which strengthens your relationships.

• Understand that socialising and keeping relationships can be hard and have challenges. Occasionally you may feel left out, different, even criticised. Just remember, it’s normal to feel this way sometimes and the feelings will pass.
• Your relationship with yourself is a