Positive and supportive relationships will help us to feel healthier, happier, and more satisfied with our lives. Here are tips to help you to develop more positive and healthy relationships in all areas of your life:
Positive Relationships
1. Accept and celebrate differences
One of the biggest challenges we experience in relationships is that we are all different. We can perceive the world in many ways. We feel more comfortable when we feel that people “get” us and can see our point of view. But people have their own thoughts, feelings and behaviours. So accepting and celebrating that we are all different is a great starting point.
2. Listen effectively
Listening is a crucial skill in boosting another person’s self-esteem. Listening and understanding what others communicate to us is the most important part of successful interaction. In active listening, we also are genuinely interested in understanding what the other person is thinking, feeling, wanting, or what the message means, and we are active in checking out our understanding before we respond with our own new message. We restate or paraphrase our understanding of their message and reflect it back to the sender for verification.
3. Give people your time
Giving time to people is a gift. Technology has somewhat eroded our ability to build real rapport and we attempt to multi-task by texting and talking at the same time. Being present in the time you give to people is also important, so that, when you are with someone, you are truly with someone and not dwelling in the past or worrying about the future.
4. Develop your communication skills
Communication occurs when someone understands you, not just when you speak. One of the biggest dangers with communication is that we can work on the assumption that the other person has understood the message we are trying to get across.
5. Learn to give and take feedback
The ability to provide constructive feedback to others helps them to tap into their personal potential and can help to forge positive and mutually beneficial relationships. From your own personal perspective, any feedback you receive is free information and you can choose whether you want to take it on board or not. It can help you to tap into your blind spot and get a different perspective.
6. Develop empathy
“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Empathy and understanding builds connection between people. It is a state of perceiving and relating to another person’s feelings and needs without blaming, giving advice, or trying to fix the situation.
Empathy also means “reading” another person’s inner state and interpreting it in a way that will help the other person and offer support and develop mutual trust. Every relationship we have can teach us something, and by building positive relationships with others, we will be happier and more fulfilled and feel more supported, supportive, and connected.
Quick Positive Relationship Tips
“We are afraid to care too much, for fear that the other person does not care at all.”
– Eleanor Roosevelt