This is part 5 in a 5 part series of posts to start the new year (building healthy relationships). The first four parts were time management, self-love, learning a new skill, and expressing gratitude. And the 5th part (I’m not going to say final because I’m sure I will be doing a lot of reflection in the coming weeks on what I want this year to focus on) is building healthy relationships.
If you know me in real life, then you know that I am a collector of friends. I’ve moved around a lot in my adult life and as a social person, I like to make friends everywhere I go. But, the hardest part for me has always been losing touch with people I once spent a lot of time with. It took me the better part of a decade to realize that that’s normal. That’s life and it doesn’t mean that people in your past don’t care about you or you don’t care about them, but priorities have shifted.
I also learned that it’s okay to let people go when it’s not best for either of you. Whether it’s a friendship or relationship, it can be difficult to accept that it’s best to part ways. So the key is building healthy relationships.
Why is it important to build healthy relationships?
People who have close friends enjoy greater satisfaction in life. And that number varies between 3 to 5 close friends. Also, the CDC recognizes loneliness as a contributor to premature death and a higher risk of dementia.
So what can we do?
Well, it’s important to evaluate if the relationships in your life are currently healthy. Well-known public speaker, Tony Robbins has a great resource guide on how to have a healthy relationship.
Personally, here are some steps I am going to take moving forward in 2022:
- Continue to improve upon myself and work on the self-love that’s necessary to build healthy relationships with others. Building my confidence inside and out has been the work of 2021 and it will continue in this coming year.
- Show gratitude and appreciation for the very important people in my life who have always been there for me. I often write it down in my reflection journal, but I don’t always speak it directly to the person. And it really makes other people feel good to hear that you appreciate having them in your life.
- Be more mindful as I meet new people on how quickly I let them into my life. I have tended to befriend people right away, but I can be friendly without making them my best friend. This is part of building healthy relationships and taking your time to get to know someone.
- Let people go or limit interaction with negativity. Some negativity is normal, because we can’t always be happy and positive all the time. But, constant negativity is an energy I don’t want moving into 2022. And that means I need to work on my own attitude and notice if it slips in too much.
- Communicate and re-evaluate. I don’t want to feel stuck or like I can’t make a change. And live by this quote:
Some people come into our lives and quickly go. Some people move our souls to dance. They awaken us to a new understanding with the passing whisper of their wisdom. Some people make the sky more beautiful to gaze upon. They stay in our lives for awhile, leave footprints on our hearts, and we are never, ever the same.
–Flavia Weedn