Building Healthy Relationships

What is a healthy relationship? A healthy relationship is a relationship that has

communication, not just any communication but a communication that is balanced. When there
is communication in a relationship, it will be healthy because through communication, the
problems within the relationship will be fixed easily. The key characteristics to this type of
relationship is honesty, assurance, trust, respect, and no invalidation of feelings. Without honesty
in relationships there will be no trust and this could cause a lot of big fights in the relationship.
Assurance can also build the trust in a relationship, it is essential for us to give constant
reassurance to our significant others. In a relationship, invalidation of feelings could cause one to
question their worth and one could also doubt the feelings of their partner towards them.

But in a healthy relationship, there are also challenges that people often encounter. These
challenges are: insensitivity, passive-aggressiveness, poor communication, no commitment, lack
of appreciation, and lack of support. If a person is insensitive in a relationship, they also become
selfish in some circumstances. When a person is insensitive, they only think of themselves and it
could result in them invalidating their significant other’s feelings. Passive-aggressiveness is also
a common challenge because there are times that we do not communicate our feelings and
instead, we use our actions to show that we are upset. When one is passive-aggressive, the
problem could be prolonged because it isn’t addressed and fixed. Appreciation and support is
essential in a relationship for it is one of the main things that makes a person feel loved and
valued. When challenges or conflicts occur because of these challenges, we can easily resolve
these by communicating properly with our significant other. Remember that we should be
sensitive to our significant other’s feelings and think twice about what we will say to them. How
we react to the conflicts has a big impact on our relationship.

Looking back on my personal relationships, I wasn’t the most healthy person to be with in
a relationship, not just romantically but also in friendships and family relationships. Most of the
challenges that I stated were evident in me, but I am proud to say that I’ve developed as a person
in relationships and everyday I am trying to be a healthy person in a relationship. My
observations in other relationships are also the same, I saw that a lot of people aren’t also that
healthy in their relationships. My personal relationships aren’t perfect but I am sure that most of
them are healthy.

As a person who improved and is planning to improve in maintaining healthy

relationships, I can say that in maintaining relationships, whether romantically, platonically, and
in families, communication is always a must. To maintain the healthiness in the relationship, we
must be consistent because consistency is key. We should always be understanding and sensitive
to them. We should be mindful of how we speak to them and how we treat them. We should
always remember to treat the people we have relationships with the way we want to be treated to
improve and maintain healthy relationships.