Tips on building and maintaining healthy relationships

 BUILDING and maintaining healthy relationships is an important part of looking after our mental health. Here are six top tips to support you with yours.

1. Get to know yourself

Take the time to appreciate yourself and get in touch with your emotions to be able to express yourself clearly and more effec­tively. Not knowing how to reg­ulate your emotions and express them healthily can negatively affect one’s mental wellbeing.

2. Put in the work

Healthy relationships are not found but built. A healthy relationship needs commit­ment and willingness to be accom­modating to each other’s needs.

3. Set and respect boundaries

Setting boundaries is not only about what you do not want or like in your relationships, but also about letting the people around you know what you appreciate. Think about and let others know where your boundaries are; respecting your time alone for example.

Doing this can take the pressure off your relationship to commit to anything unrealistic.

4. Talk and Listen

All relationships have disagree­ments and that is okay. What mat­ters is how you talk and listen to one another. Listen to understand, rather than listening to respond. Do not be afraid to express your emo­tions or vulnerabilities with people you trust.

5. Let go of control

A lot of life is about how we react to our experiences and encounters. Knowing that you can only really control what you do and not what anyone else does will save you time and stress.

6. Reflect and learn

If you have a healthy way of expressing your feelings, you are able to react to other people’s in a healthy way. Being angry with someone often comes from a place of feeling hurt and upset. If you can recognise that, you can communi­cate it, and build better relation­ships with others.

Reflect on the relationships that work best in your life, what qual­ities do these relationships have, and how can you bring these quali­ties into other relationships?