05/26/2026
Wellness is about engagement. While COVID-19 was an acute global health crisis, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation, as described by the 19th and 21st U.S. Surgeon General, may prove to be a more persistent and long-term threat to population health.
Unlike a virus with a clear endpoint, social disconnection is deeply embedded in modern life, with lasting effects on mortality, mental health, and community well-being.
The U.S. Surgeon General has warned that the health impacts of social disconnection are severe: “The mortality impact of being socially disconnected is similar to that caused by smoking up to 15 ci******es a day, and even greater than that associated with obesity and physical inactivity.”
We are not only living in a world that is physically disconnected, but also one that too often overvalues outcomes while undervaluing process. Yet both matter deeply, because outcomes are shaped by the quality of the process that produces them. Connection itself can become performative, reduced to checking boxes of activities in an app to demonstrate that we are “doing enough,” or assuming that following someone online is all it takes to truly know someone.
Encouragement is often reduced to a “like,” care is expressed through quick reactions, and community is measured through clicks, views, and metrics rather than shared experience. In this way, we risk confusing proximity—even in roles as care providers—with real human closeness and substituting meaningful relationships and engagement with symbolic gestures of attention. True engagement, however, cannot be outsourced to platforms or quantified through interactions; it requires time, presence, and genuine participation in one another’s lives.
Because the real “magic” happens in the moments we choose to be present with one another—when we listen actively and with empathy, when we hold space for each other with care, and when we open ourselves to connection, even in the vulnerability of being truly seen for who we are. It happens when we play, sing, and create together, even in the beauty of our imperfections. In those shared experiences, wellness becomes not just an individual goal, but a collective practice, something we build and achieve together, as a community. ❤️
