Maintaining healthy, loving relationships through life are crucial for our happiness. Whether with your partner, your family or colleagues at work, being surrounded by positivity means the world for your overall life productivity.
Each one of us has a free choice of what we accept and what we give in return. Settling for a relationship that doesn’t make you happy is an awful way to miss out on all the joys your life could bring.
The first and most important step toward building a great relationship with your partner is to take responsibility for your own behavior and to understand and recognize the impact you have on other people’s lives. If a relationship doesn’t have a future, there is no point pretending it does. Personal responsibility is just as important as your partner’s actions.
So, how do you know if you are in a healthy relationship or not? There are clear indicators for this, and we’ll name the most important and obvious ones.
Mutual trust
You’ve probably heard this a million times: mutual trust is crucial. It might sound like a cliché, but this is absolutely true. When we trust our partner, we feel more safe and open. We are more likely to listen to them and accept the things they are saying; even if it’s things we don’t like hearing. Trust allows us to build close connections to the other person, let them into our life and feel like they are just what they need to be: our “partner in crime” who’s always on our side and whose actions are never turned against us. And that feeling is the most important part of a healthy relationship.
Respect
Firstly, you have to have respect for yourself. If you’re in a healthy relationship, you will value yourself and think highly of your own standards and opinions. Even when you get in a fight with your partner, you are still fully aware of your own worth, and you don’t feel like your partner is trying to put you down.
The truth is respectful behaviors are those that clearly demonstrate you’re aware of both yours and your partner’s wishes and rights. Being respectful means thinking about your partner’s well-be, and knowing he/she is doing the same, instead of only thinking about yourself.
Kindness
The amount of trust people have in you is directly connected to how you treat them. If you treat your partner with care and consideration, they will trust you because they feel you mean well. Having compassion and being kind to your partner demonstrates your love and care for them. Couples who speak to each other with warmth, who are giving and generous to one another are happier and more satisfied with their lives in general, in comparison to those who treat each other with no kindness.
Openness
Being able to share insights to your feelings and your thoughts is also very important and a sign of a healthy relationship. If you are able to express yourself honestly and speak with no restrains, then you’re on the right track. Being open leads to transparent conversations that allow people to better understand one another, which then leads to building more trust. How free do you feel to raise your concerns in front of your partner? Are there some topics that are off-limits, or can you talk about anything with your partner?
Collaboration
When two people collaborate, they bring their thoughts, talents and desires together in order to make decisions and achieve common goals. Collaboration means listening to the other person’s concerns and preferences, openly offer ideas and potential solutions, as well as keeping an open mind for their own point of view. When both partners are willing to compromise and go with a solution that’s good for both of them, relationships get strengthened.
Fun
Having fun is energizing, it gives you the strength to go through life’s difficulties. If you enjoy spending time with your partner, instead of feeling nervous and somewhat uncomfortable, your relationship will deepen very quickly. Being in the moment, having a laugh and enjoying the fun of little things in your mutual life will uplift your relationship to a wonderful level of bliss. Of course, it’s unrealistic to expect to be happy all the time, but you should know that the health of your relationship greatly depends on your ability to relax and have fun with your partner.
Letting go of the bad stuff
Baggage weights incredibly heavy on any relationship. Holding on to feelings of resentment, betrayal or anger will drain out your spirit. It’s very important to have open conversations, no matter how tough they are. You should speak openly about the things that bother you, resolve your issues and put them behind you. Holding on to those awful feelings won’t help you or your relationship. You can’t simply decide to ignore the problems and eat yourself up inside. Letting go takes work, but it needs to be done. If you partner has done something that hurt you in the past and you still hold it against him, there will be no trust, no respect and no kindness between the two of you.