One of the most important and powerful ways to improve your mental health is to work on improving your relationships. The organization Onelove shares that healthy relationships are characterized by trust and honesty. Healthy partners won’t do anything to intentionally hurt the other or ruin the relationship. You don’t have to question the other person’s intentions or whether they have your back. Healthy partners never put you through a “test” to prove your loyalty. Healthy relationships are marked by truthful conversations without fear of how the other person will respond. Partners share the truth about their life and feelings with each other. They respond with kindness and consideration.
We all deserve to be in healthy relationships. Onelove shares that healthy relationships promote independence and mutual respect. In a healthy relationship, you support each other’s hobbies, friendships, families, and career choices. Having independence means being free to be yourself and giving your partner that same freedom. It means valuing each other's interests, beliefs, and opinions. Each of you can have boundaries and you respect each other’s boundaries. In a healthy relationship you celebrate each other's achievements and support the other’s hard work and dreams.
Good relationships experience equality between partners. The relationship feels balanced, and everyone puts the same effort into the success of the relationship. One person’s preferences and opinions do not dominate. You hear each other out and make compromises when you don’t see eye-to-eye. You feel like each person’s needs, wishes, and interests are just as important as the other’s. There may be times one puts in more (money, time, emotional support) than the other and vice versa, but the outcome always feels equitable and even.
Healthy relationships are characterized by each partner taking responsibility for their own words and actions. Each partner avoids placing blame on the other and can admit when they made a mistake. Partners genuinely apologize when they’ve done something wrong and continually try to make positive changes to make the relationship better. Healthy partners take ownership for the impact their words or behavior had on the other person. Finally, a healthy relationship is characterized by fun. No relationship is fun 100% of the time, but the good times should outweigh the bad.
-Jerry Strausbaugh, EdD, LPCCS, Executive Director
