HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

What Does a Healthy Relationship Look Like?

Healthy relationships involve honesty, trust, respect and open communication between partners and they take effort and compromise from both people. There is no imbalance of power. Partners respect each other’s independence, can make their own decisions without fear of retribution or retaliation, and share decisions. If or when a relationship ends, there is no stalking or refusal to let the other partner go.

Characteristics of Healthy Relationships

Respect for privacy and space. You don’t have to be with your partner 24/7.
Your partner encourages you to spend time with friends without them, and to participate in activities that you enjoy.
You feel comfortable expressing your opinions and concerns to your partner.
Your feel physically safe and your partner doesn’t force you to have sex or to do things that make you feel uncomfortable.
Your partner respects your wishes and feelings and you can compromise and negotiate when there are disagreements or conflicts.
Affection
Healthy relationships are characterized by fondness and affection. Research has shown that the initial passion that marks the start of a new relationship tends to decline over time,but this does not mean that the need for affection, comfort, and tenderness lessens.
Passionate love usually happens during the beginning of a relationship and is characterized by intense longing, strong emotions, and a need to maintain physical closeness. This passionate love eventually transforms into compassionate love, which is marked by feelings of affection, trust, intimacy, and commitment.

The foundation of a healthy relationship includes:

Boundaries: You and your partner are able to find ways to meet each other’s’ needs in ways that you both feel comfortable with.
Good Communication
Healthy, long-lasting relationships, whether they are friendships or romantic partnerships, require the ability to communicate well.One study found that a couple's communication style was more important than stress, commitment, and personality in predicting whether married couples would eventually divorce.
While it might seem like the best relationships are those that don’t involve conflict, knowing how to argue and resolve differences of opinion effectively is more important than simply avoiding arguments in order to keep the peace.Sometimes conflict can be an opportunity to strengthen a connection with your partner. Research has shown that conflict can be beneficial in intimate relationships when serious problems need to be addressed, allowing partners to make changes that benefit the future of the relationship.
When conflicts do arise, those in healthy relationships are able to avoid personal attacks. Instead, they remain respectful and empathetic of their partner as they discuss their thoughts and feelings and work toward a resolution.

Trust: Building trust can take time and allows couples to be vulnerable with one another knowing that they can rely on the other person.

Every person’s needs are different. For example, some people have higher needs for openness and affection than others do. In a healthy relationship, each person is able to get what they need.

You should be able to feel that you can be yourself in a healthy relationship. While all couples have varying levels of openness and self-disclosure, you should never feel like you have to hide aspects of yourself or change who you are. Being open and honest with each other not only helps you feel more connected as a couple, but it also helps foster trust.

Self-disclosure refers to what you are willing to share about yourself with another person.

At the beginning of a relationship, you may hold back and exercise more caution about what you are willing to reveal. Over time, as the intimacy of a relationship increases, partners begin to reveal more of their thoughts, opinions, beliefs, interests, and memories to one another.

This doesn’t mean that you need to share every single thing with your partner. Each individual needs their own privacy and space. What matters most is whether each partner feels comfortable sharing their hopes, fears, and feelings if they so choose. Healthy couples don't need to be together all the time or share everything.

Differences in opinion over how much honesty there should be in a relationship can sometimes cause problems, however. Fortunately, one study found that when people are unhappy with their partner’s level of openness, they typically discuss the problem with their partner.This is a good example of how addressing a problem openly can help strengthen a relationship.

Healthy boundaries in a relationship allow you to still do the things that are important to you, such as going out with friends and maintaining privacy, while still sharing important things with your partner.

A partner who has unhealthy expectations of openness and honesty might expect to know every detail of where you are and what you're doing, restrict who you can spend time with, or demand access to your personal social media accounts.

Mutual Respect

In close, healthy relationships, people have a shared respect for one another. They don't demean or belittle one another and offer support and security.

There are a number of different ways that couples can show respect for one another. These include:

Listening to one another
Not procrastinating or stonewalling when your partner asks you to do something
Being understanding and forgiving when one person makes a mistake
Building each other up; not tearing each other down
Making room in your life for your partner
Taking an interest in the things your partner enjoys
Allowing your partner to have their own individuality
Supporting and encouraging your partner’s pursuits and passions
Showing appreciation and gratitude for one another
Having empathy for one another

Consent: Most commonly used when you’re being sexually active, giving consent means that you are okay with what is happening, and that no one is forcing you or guilting you into doing anything that you don’t want to do. Consent can be given and taken back at any time, and giving consent once does not mean you automatically give consent in the future.

See how these things go hand in hand by exploring the other sections to your left.

Please keep in mind that in some abusive relationships, trying to enforce boundaries, honest communication, trust, and other healthy behaviors could put your safety at risk. Remember, abuse is about power and control and someone who is abusive might not want to give up their control over you.

Dennis Nemsy