Relationships are a major part of your social network, and they can have significant impacts on both your mental and physical health. These relationships can be close and intimate, distant and challenging, or a combination of the two.
Healthy relationships are mutually beneficial and include healthy amounts of giving and taking, emotional connection, trust, security, and support. While each relationship may look different, many tend to follow a similar pattern across contexts and throughout the lifetime of a person.
It is important that each partner maintain a sense of their own identity and self-worth. It is also important to respect the unique interests and perspectives of your partner, and to not try to control them or subvert their own beliefs and opinions. This type of codependent behavior is toxic and destroys the very identities that made you attracted to your partner in the first place.
A good relationship should make you happy and should inspire you to grow. If it doesn’t, it is not the right relationship for you. A loving and supportive partner should bring out the best in you, teach you valuable lessons, and make you feel like they are the only one who understands you.
Healthy couples also communicate openly and honestly. They discuss their needs and wants, and they disagree respectfully. It is also important that you take responsibility for your mistakes, and that you are able to apologize for your actions. In addition, it is important to accept that some differences or difficulties cannot be solved, and that it is sometimes necessary to move on from a relationship.