Creating and Maintaining Healthy Interpersonal Relationships

A healthy society and community are built on the strength of human connections. For a person to survive and thrive, relationships are of the utmost importance. Humans have a fundamental need for social attachment and interpersonal connection, essential for emotional well-being and mental health.

An individual starts making relationships right from birth with parents, siblings, friends, partner, children, teachers, colleagues and the community. Healthy relationships determine your own health in numerous domains whether it is physical, psychological, social, financial or spiritual. 

Forming healthy and secure relationships takes willingness, commitment and consistent efforts. 

A Healthy Relationship Constitutes:
 

Open and Honest communication: The best thing you can bring to healthy relationships is honesty and openness in the conversations. Communicating can help express your needs, fears and desires. Making decisions based on assumptions, your own perspective, and a unique belief system can result in biased decisions which can lead to conflicts and unresolved tension. Ask about other person’s thoughts and feelings. Honesty and openness in a relationship can increase trust, strengthen the bond, and bring greater respect.

Having a nonjudgmental attitude: You need the humility to recognise that you are not perfect or all-knowing. You need to have the patience to listen to the other person fully and at the same time, not assert yourself too strongly in relationships to the point of being critical and opinionated. Working on being mindful of your own tendency to be critical and judgmental can help in setting the seal for having a healthy relationship. 

Build Trust and Practice Perspective-Taking: Controlling and micro-managing can lead to resentments. 

Resentments can further damage the confidence of other person to have a trusting relationship. Focus on building mutual trust and space by understanding the other person’s views to better understand their actions and convey your empathy towards their thoughts, emotions, reactions, intentions and beliefs. 

Respect boundaries of self and others: Understand what you value in a relationship and maintain boundaries around things which can make you feel depleted. If you think you have a tendency to please everyone and you’re likely to go above and beyond your boundaries to make them feel loved, you can end up neglecting yourself, feeling exhausted, and feeling taken for granted and it can lead to disturbances in the relationship. Setting boundaries would help them understand what you appreciate in a relationship. Explain each boundary and expectation that limits and prevents conflicts and can lead to healthy discussion. 
 

Give adequate respect: Respect for one another is the cornerstone of a strong partnership. The closer you are to someone, the more at ease you are with criticising them without filtering and being mindful of the words. When you depreciate or criticise in a relationship, it can lead to feelings of worthlessness and rejection in another person. Whenever you are encountered with conflicts, speak when you’re not emotionally triggered and try to focus on the problem and at the same time-avoid blaming. Use “I” Statements to help them understand different opinions, speak kindly and value each other’s feelings, support each other’s passions and hobbies and hold them in high regard through your actions and words. Respect and appreciate each other daily or weekly, in simple and heart-warming ways that can express your love and care.
 

Have a growth mindset: Relationships are ever changing and evolving. Having a growth mindset can give you the opportunity to understand the situations through clarification and reflection, thereby recalibrating the actions and goals which can help cultivate the relationship. Be open to change, adapt new things and focus on building the relationship by adjusting time to time.

Conclusion
 

Creating and maintaining healthy interpersonal relationships is a lifelong journey. It requires intention, empathy, effective communication, and a readiness to develop both personally and collectively. Nurturing relationships with care, respect, and authenticity lay the groundwork for lasting happiness and deeper connections. Whether in personal or professional settings, the quality of your relationships ultimately shapes the quality of your life. Consistent effort in applying these principles can lead to greater happiness and contentment across various aspects of life.