In honor of International Women’s Day this month, we want to do our part to empower you, your friends, your sisters, your mothers, your daughters, and all the females everywhere in one of the most important aspects of your life – your relationships. Specifically, helping you identify and maintain healthy romantic relationships. Check out these tips.
Characteristics of Healthy Relationships
It seems we’re almost bombarded with stories of relationships gone wrong, and advice for relationship problems or tips to get out of a bad relationship. While this is certainly valuable information, it’s also just as important to discuss the positives. What does a healthy relationship really look like? After all, that’s what we’re all striving for, right? Here are some common characteristics:
- A meaningful emotional connection – Feeling loved, accepted, and valued by your partner.
- Being unafraid of disagreement – Feeling safe to have differing opinions and respectfully work through conflict.
- Sustaining your own identities outside of the relationship – Having the freedom to preserve your relationships with family and friends and continuing your hobbies and interests.
- Communicating openly and honestly – Feeling comfortable expressing needs, wants, and concerns.
Tips to Maintain Healthy Romantic Relationships
While The Beetles may proclaim that “All You Need is Love,” we know there’s much more to a healthy relationship than that. The characteristics above may sound simple, but they are much harder to achieve and maintain. It truly takes two partners willing to commit to working for the relationship as well. And these tips can help:
- View your relationship in a healthy way – Many people look to their partner/relationship to fill what they think is missing in their life or within them. It’s too much pressure, and honestly, won’t work. A healthy relationship enhances your life, but only you can make yourself complete.
- Check each other’s expectations – Early on, talk about what you want the relationship to be and where you want it to go. If you agree, wonderful! If not, it’s better to decide sooner whether or not you can compromise than to have a surprise down the road that will fracture your relationship.
- Make time for each other – Ideally face-to-face. Doing this regularly is vitally important in keeping that emotional connection strong. Make a point to have a date night once a month, try something new together, participate in a sport or hobby together, and at least take a few minutes each day to focus on each other without distraction.
- Keep up the physical intimacy – Regular, physical affection boosts the level of oxytocin – a hormone that influences bonding and positive emotion – in your body. And it’s not just sex, but also holding hands, hugging and kissing are key to physical intimacy as well, all with consent of course.
- Recognize there will be ups and downs – Not matter how healthy the relationship is, there will be hard times, things you disagree on, and misunderstandings. It’s a given, but that doesn’t mean it’s ok to take it out on each other or that it’s the end of your relationship. Instead learn to give and take, how to resolve conflicts together, when to let something go and when it’s time to seek outside help such as counseling.
When ‘Healthy’ Isn’t Happening
At the end of the day, some relationships just aren’t healthy no matter how much you work at it or want it to be. If that particular relationship is a marriage, and you’re considering divorce, know that mediation is an alternative that can be easier, quicker, less expensive, and more private than court litigation.
How does it work? A trained mediator will serve as a neutral third party to help you resolve issues such as distribution of assets, child custody, child support, and alimony using dispute resolution methods and negotiation techniques to guide you and your partner constructively towards an amicable agreement.
We can help you with our divorce coaching and mediation services that are all virtual for added convenience. For more information, contact our experienced team today to learn more.
