Healthy relationships are crucial to emotional and physical health. Improving upon your relationships may be essential to quality of life. Humans are inherently social beings. The main purpose of relationships is to allow people to be connected to each other through affections, understanding, confidence and closeness, so that each gets support from the other to ease the burdens of life and to enhance the enjoyment of living. Having and keeping a healthy relationship with others requires the maturity to be in a healthy relationship with yourself.
Often, the first step to improve close relationships is to reflect upon AND work on your own:
- Sense of self-esteem. How you feel about yourself and confidencein your value as a human being.
- Ability to set boundaries. Limits we set with other people based on what we find acceptable and unacceptable behavior towards us.
- Sense of self. Knowing your unique identity as a person, accepting your entire self, including both the traits you’re proud of and those you would like to improve.
- Self-care. Taking care of one’s own needs and wants.
- Intimacy. Sharing and receiving reality without judgements.
These traits can take work to achieve. Understanding your own strengths and limitations and focusing on yourself first, can lead to breaking free from harmful relationships and learning to enhance the skills necessary to have satisfying relationships.