According to research, meaningful relationships may be the single most important determinant to happiness. We are social beings, and having close family members, friends, or a romantic partner to share our experiences with can add more meaning to life.
However, great relationships don’t come naturally – they need to be created, pursued, and maintained continuously. And, whether you want to create an extraordinary relationship with your partner, family members, friends, or colleagues, you need to first learn to like yourself.
When you like yourself, your friendships will be balanced as you will not look towards others for validation or approval and you are able to set boundaries of what you will and won’t tolerate in a relationship. At the same time, you will be gentler and more forgiving with yourself. A good relationship with yourself will allow you to treat others like they have worth and value, thereby laying the foundation for a meaningful relationship.
These six tips can help you build more meaningful relationships:
- Take responsibility for your own emotional well-being and happiness. Make sure that you have personal time to rejuvenate yourself and connect with your hobbies so that you can calmly focus on and interact with others.
- Take some time to reflect on the key relationships and friendships in your life. Are they meaningful? Do they add meaning, growth, positivity, love, and joy to your life?
- Get into giving mode: Be mindful of the needs of others, offer kindness and appreciation, give without expectations, and adopt an attitude of gratitude towards your loved ones.
- Make a list of the activities/hobbies/projects that you can enjoy together with friends, colleagues, or family members. Choose those which boost your energy and bring you closer; schedule them at least once a week.
- Learn to truly listen to others without judgment and with an open mind; focus on the qualities in others, and cultivate compassion, another learnable happiness habit.
- Reach out and touch your loved ones more often, studies show that hugging your loved ones or even just holding hands lowers your blood pressure and heart rate and increases the happiness hormone oxytocin.
Relationships are the heart of happiness. Make sure you surround yourself and your family with happy and supportive friends and focus on building meaningful relationships. Be ready to invest your attention, time, and energy in most important relationships and remind yourself daily that happiness is found in the connections you make and the friendships you maintain.
Carefully choose the people you spend time with: You are the average of the five (5) persons you spend the most time with!
Keep choosing happiness and happiness will keep choosing you back!
