Your social life is defined as "the activities you do with other people, for pleasure, when you are not working". It's important to have a social life, but what's right for one person won't be right for another. Some of us feel energised by spending lots of time with others, whereas some of us may feel drained, even if it's doing something we enjoy.

This is why finding a balance in your social life is key, spending too much time on your own, not seeing others, can make you feel lonely and disconnected. loneliness is known to impact on your mental health and contribute to a low mood. Anyone can feel lonely at any time. This might be especially true if, for example you are working form from home and you are massing out on the usual social conversations that happen in an office. other life changes can trigger periods of loneliness too, such as retirement, changing jobs or becoming a parent.

It's important to recognise these feelings of loneliness. There are ways to regain a social life, but it can feel overwhelming at first. It's a great idea able to meet like-minded people. Mere are groups aimed at new parents at those who want to try a new sport for the first time, or networking events for those in the same profession to meet up and share ideas.

On the other hand, it's also possible to have too much of a social life. If you feel like you're always doing something and there is never any space you calendar for downtime, you could suffer social burnout or social fatigue. We all have our own social limit and it's important to recongnise when you're feeling like its all too much. Low mood, low energy, irritability and trouble sleeping could all be signs of poor social health. Make sure you mark out some time in your diary when you're unavailable for socialising and use this time to relax, rest and recover.