With Valentine’s Day around the corner, now is a good time to reflect on all the relationships in your life. Maintaining relationships over the past year was made challenging by the request to spend more time at home for the health of the nation. We have had to re-evaluate all of our interpersonal interactions and learn new ways to engage with each other. Before we had to fight for time with our significant other and family. Now they are the only people we see regularly. Some relationships have been lost in the hardships, and these losses come with social, psychological, and even physiological impacts. Strong social ties boost the immune system, increase longevity, decrease the risk of contracting certain chronic illnesses, and increase the ability to deal with chronic pain. When our relationships are being tested, it can be hard to know how to maintain quality relationships.
The key is knowing who we want to maintain relationships with and what they need to feel they are an integral part of the relationship. What does each person need to feel loved? A few common ways to express affection include:
- Communicating in words or writing to let people know that you love them and appreciate their relationship with you. This also means we need to be honest with ourselves and them about expectations for the relationship and expressing how to accept fault and make amends when we do wrong.
- Making time to give them a hand with their least favorite chore or repairing a broken item.
- Taking them a gift or expressing gratitude over them bringing you a gift to show their appreciation of you.
- Spending time together playing a game or just watching tv or knowing when to encourage alone time.
It has been difficult to maintain relationships over the past year as we all struggle with a multitude of changes to our lifestyle. If your best efforts are not keeping your relationships afloat, it might be time to seek professional help to take steps towards healing your own psychological ailments to be able to repair damaged friendships or romantic attachments. Here at Gilstrap and Associates, we are ready to build a relationship with you that will have you repairing and creating solid foundations in all your relationships. Our office is available and prepared to invest in all our patients’ wellness promotion, prevention, treatment, and recovery. Please contact us to determine if our practice will be a good fit for you.