Bliss Cuppa Club

Aug 7, 2023
4 min read

Updated: Nov 3, 2023

What is The Cuppa Club? | Happiness from Harvard | Connecting with Co-workers | Connecting with family and friends | Join The Bliss Cuppa Club

What is The Cuppa Club?

The Bliss Cuppa Club is a regular opportunity to meet with friends, family, colleagues and peers. It's a quick chat, a catch up, sharing a joke, an anecdote or whatever you decide it's going to be. It's short, informal, an opportunity to get to know people a little better and share how you're feeling. One cuppa leads to another, or not, either is OK. The aim is that overtime you connect with more people and on a deeper level. This will improve your wellness and your relationships. It can also improve your work life, your productivity and your health. Sounds unlikely? Lets take a closer look

Happiness from Harvard

Loneliness kills. It’s as powerful as smoking or alcoholism. Robert Waldinger - The Harvard Gazette

Harvard Scientists first began tracking the health of 268 Harvard sophomores in 1938 during the Great Depression, they hoped the study would reveal clues to leading healthy happy lives. The study now almost 80 years old, shows that embracing community helps us live longer, and be happier. Over the years, researchers have studied the participants’ health trajectories and their broader lives, including their triumphs and failures in careers and marriage. The study was expanded several times to include wives, children and Boston inner city residents. They discovered that our relationships and how happy we are in our relationships has a powerful influence on our health. According to Robert Waldinger, director of the study, tending your relationships is a form of self-care.

Close relationships, more than money or fame, are what keep people happy throughout their lives, the study revealed. Those ties protect people from life’s discontents, help to delay mental and physical decline, and are better predictors of long and happy lives than social class, IQ, or even genes.

Psychiatrist George Vaillant, who joined the team as a researcher in 1966, led the study from 1972 until 2004. Vaillant emphasized the role of relationships, and came to recognize the crucial role they played in people living long and pleasant lives.

In a book called “Aging Well,” George Vaillant wrote that six factors predicted healthy aging for the Harvard students: physical activity, absence of alcohol abuse and smoking, having mature mechanisms to cope with life’s ups and downs, and enjoying both a healthy weight and a stable marriage. For the inner-city men, education was an additional factor. “The more education the inner city men obtained,” wrote Vaillant, “the more likely they were to stop smoking, eat sensibly, and use alcohol in moderation.”

When the study began, nobody cared about empathy or attachment. But the key to healthy aging is relationships, relationships, relationships George Vaillant - The Harvard Gazette

Connecting with Co-workers

When we feel disconnected or lonely in our workplace, we can be at an increased risk of depression, anxiety or stress. According to Deloitee's 2022 Mental Health Report poor mental health impacts on employers costs. The estimated annual cost of absenteeism, presenteeism (the cost of attending work whilst ill), resulting in underperforming or being less productive, and staff turnover is £53-56 Billion 2020-2021.

It's clear that supporting social connections as part of workplace wellbeing has benefits for both employers and employees. The Cuppa Club exists to help SMEs, sole traders and their staff connect with others which would not otherwise be possible or sustainable, and helps larger organisations who don't have the time or expertise to set up their own clubs.

Our financial analysis indicates that measures by employers to improve the mental health of their employees will yield a return on average of £5 for every £1 spent deloitte-uk-mental-health-report-2022.

Many offices have a breakout room making it easier for staff to interact and we'll talk more in future posts about making the space as welcoming and inclusive as possible. If you don't have this kind of space available, you could consider allowing staff to leave 20 minutes earlier or tag some extra time onto lunch breaks. The extra interactions can spark all kinds of friendships collaborations and improve inter-department relations too.

Connecting with family and friends

This can be easier than connecting with colleagues because we know the people a little better, and for many of us this is an easier group to connect with. But add family strife or divorce and you might suddenly find you are disconnected. Getting together with a family member or friend over a cuppa can be an easy dip in, dip out, without getting into the conflict especially if you meet in a favourite coffee shop.

Making it clear that you have about a half hour free means you're not looking to go deep and it won't take up too much of their time either. If you feel comfortable invite them to your home, there are few pleasures better than a cup of tea in the garden with someone you like, or hope to like, on a summer afternoon.

Try not to neglect connecting with friends and family - it's good for your relationships and for your self-care too. A good aim might be to meet someone for a cuppa at least once a week. It doesn't need to be the same person either. You could consider setting this as a goal, focusing on something does helps us achieve the result.

This same approach can be made with acquaintances, old school friends, or people you know through joint experiences, PTAs, fund raising and sports clubs. It's a lovely way to connect with your neighbours too.

Join The Bliss Cuppa Club

You must be subscribed to take part. It's free for individuals but for businesses and other organisations to join and host their own sessions you'll need a business membership. Once you've subscribed you can:

Head over to the Cuppa Club forum to find the latest information from members who are looking to share a cuppa
Join the Cuppa Club group for details of Cuppa Club groups you can join
Check-out the latest cuppa and snack ideas in the Blissful Food Forum
Keep up to date with our latest Bliss Life Cuppa Club Blogs