Recipes for Connection Resources
High-Quality Connections: A Key to Well-Being
Loneliness is on the rise—both in and out of the workplace—and it’s taking a toll. Chronic loneliness doesn’t just impact personal well-being; it also affects workplace performance and team dynamics. (See Loneliness Epidemic Research Highlights).
So, what can we do about it?
The answer isn’t simply more social interactions—it’s about better ones. True belonging isn’t built through small talk or sheer volume of connections but through high-quality relationships that foster trust, support, and a sense of being valued.
Building these kinds of connections is both rewarding and challenging. While sharing a meal or making time for others can be fun and fulfilling, it can also take effort—especially in a profession where time is scarce, and busyness is often worn as a badge of honor.
But the payoff is worth it. Strong social ties not only combat loneliness but also fuel psychological well-being, strengthen workplace culture, and enhance overall performance. (See Social Cure Research Highlights)
Join Us: Make a Meaningful Connection
This Well-Being Week in Law, we invite you to take a small but powerful step—share a meal and spark connection.
What:
Host a gathering with colleagues, clients, friends, or family over food. It can be as simple as coffee with a colleague or as celebratory as a dinner with your team.
Who:
Anyone—including you! Meaningful connection starts with an invitation, and even a single effort can create a ripple effect across the legal profession.
When:
We’d love for you to plan your gathering on May 8 or 9, during Well-Being Week in Law. But what matters most is making it happen, no matter the date.
Why:
This initiative builds on the U.S. Surgeon General’s Recipes for Connection campaign, which highlights the power of social bonds in combating loneliness. It also draws on a global survey by Gallup finding that people who regularly eat meals with others are happier.
Can one meal solve loneliness? No. But it can be a meaningful first step toward deepening relationships, building belonging, and strengthening well-being—both individually and across the profession.
We recognize that fostering connection isn’t always easy—it takes intentionality and time. But it can also be energizing, rewarding, and even fun. So let’s embrace both the challenge and the joy of building a more connected profession—one meal, one conversation, one moment of belonging at a time.
Recipes for Connection Resources
Below are resources to spark ideas for your gatherings and to offer suggestions on how to make them meaningful experiences.
We’ll continually update the page, so keep coming back to check for more resources.
Recipes For Connection
The U.S. Surgeon General created the Recipes for Connection booklet as part of the campaign encouraging high-quality connections over meals. It recommends the “ingredients” for good gatherings, suggests invite formats, and gives ideas for different kinds of gatherings.
The New Rules of Gathering
Priya Parker, who wrote the highly-rated book The Art of Gathering: A Guide to Planning With Purpose for Any Occasion, created a short guide summarizing her basic principles for creating meaningful gatherings: The New Rules of Gathering. Her website blog also offers helpful tips.
The 2-Hour Cocktail Party
Nick Gray’s book, The 2-Hour Cocktail Party, offers a detailed template for beginners on how to organize relatively short events with enough structure to foster meaningful connections. (He calls them “cocktail parties” but emphasizes they can be alcohol-free. The main ingredient is meaningful connections.)
Stanford’s Lifestyle Medicine website profiled Nick Gray’s approach in an article titled How to Host a Gathering to Foster Meaningful Relationships. Nick Gray’s website also offers many tips on designing 2-hour cocktail parties.
