Love is the most profound emotion known to human beings. For most people, romantic relationships are the most meaningful relationship in their lives.
But the ability to have a healthy, loving relationship is not innate. Almost all of us have experienced a failed relationship, and most of us have to work consciously to master the skills necessary to make them flourish. The good news is that with effort and perseverance, you can learn how to make your relationships work.
What Makes a Healthy Relationship?
Hopefully, you and your significant other are treating each other well. When considering your relationship think about whether your relationship has these seven qualities:
- Mutual Respect – Respect in a relationship means that each person values who the other is and understands — and would never challenge — the other person’s boundaries.
- Trust – There’s no way you can have a healthy relationship if you don’t trust each other.
- Honesty – This one goes hand-in-hand with trust because it’s tough to trust someone when one of you isn’t being honest.
- Support – It’s not just in bad times that your partner should support you. Some people are great when your whole world is falling apart but can’t take being there when things are going right (and vice versa).
- Fairness/equality – You need to have give-and-take in your relationship too. Things get bad really fast when a relationship turns into a power struggle, with one person fighting to get his or her way all the time.
- Separate identities – In a healthy relationship, everyone needs to make compromises. But that doesn’t mean you should feel like you’re losing out on being yourself. You also should feel free to keep developing new talents or interests, making new friends, and moving forward.
- Good communication – You’ve probably heard lots of stuff about how men and women don’t seem to speak the same language. It is critical that you and your partner are able to communicate effectively.
