What is the Social Domain?

  • Published
  • By Sandra Williams
  • 509th Bomb Wing community support coordinator
There are four areas of a person's life which capture the totality of how they experience and relate to others and themselves.  In order to be a balanced person, you must first have a balanced lifestyle.  The mental, physical, social, and spiritual domains are the four areas that require constant vigilance.

The last quarter, we focused on the spiritual domain ... which is the ability to sustain an individual's sense of wellbeing and purpose through a set of spiritual beliefs, principles or values.  This quarter we will be focusing on the social domain.

The social domain is our ability to engage in healthy social networks that promote overall well-being and optimal performance.  What's that you say?  You're not a "social" person?  That's ok, most of us aren't.  Being healthy socially doesn't mean having many intimate friends, a multitude of casual acquaintances; but it does mean being able to know how to make contact. That might be on social media, Twitter, Facebook or even video games that allow us to communicate.

The social domain forces us to realize that we aren't alone.  The ability to communicate, feel connected, have social support and feel a sense of teamwork.  If you know you have someone to turn too, it makes that day that just isn't going that great, that much easier to deal with.

We always have to make time to play and have fun and there are many avenues available to do just that. Getting involved in the community, group activities, etc., is just the tip of the social domain and there will be more to follow as the weeks go by.

This quarter we want to focus on increasing contacts and support from the important people in your life, which will include friends, family, co-workers, leaders and your wingmen. 

Like Coach Vince Lombardi said, "It is not whether you get knocked down.  It's whether you get up again..."  I would like to add, "...it's better if we have someone who can help us get back up."  That is the social domain.