Our interpersonal relationships play a critical role in our overall mental and physical well-being. Positive relationships reduce stress and increase feelings of security and happiness.
However, unhealthy relationships can have the opposite effect, contributing to symptoms of depression and anxiety. It can be overwhelming initially when you’re looking to form healthy interpersonal connections. Don’t worry; the process doesn’t have to be such a struggle.
You just need to learn where to focus your efforts, and everything will fall into place. Keep reading this guide to learn six ways to create stronger interpersonal connections with family and friends.
1. Create Openness and Honesty
Forming and maintaining bonds with other people requires a give-and-take on both ends. Both people must share information and open up about emotions and past experiences.
Doing this allows you to get to know the other person on a deeper level. It involves a process known as self-disclosure. Self-disclosure is all about sharing personal details about your life and is crucial for building intimacy in all kinds of social relationships.
It’s based on mutual give and take and is the main reason why people grow closer and become more involved with each other.
When you can’t let people in, it creates distance in your interpersonal relationships. This is because it can make people feel you don’t trust them. Consider how it feels when someone won’t let you in and work to form those bonds with you.
2. Establish Healthy Boundaries
While you need to maintain openness, at the same time, you need to establish healthy boundaries. Healthy boundaries are critical for any strong and lasting relationship to form.
You can look at boundaries as things you’re willing to accept in any relationship you have. Boundaries can represent your limitations, expectations, and personal values.
For example, you might limit your time with the other person. It may also include how much of yourself you feel comfortable sharing physically and emotionally.
For a healthy connection to exist, others must respect your boundaries. At the same time, you also have to respect other people’s boundaries. Doing this establishes a positive balance in your relationships. It shows you care about each other’s emotions, values, and needs.
3. Ensure You’re Actively Listening
Good interpersonal communication doesn’t just mean the ability to communicate well. It also involves being able to listen to other people without interrupting.
Active listening is all about being engaged with what the other person is saying. With active listening, you don’t just stay quiet and let them talk. Instead, you reflect on their words and how they say them.
As you reflect, you ask engaging questions to show that you listen and take in what they say. Listening shows that you care about the other person and are interested in their feelings.
Finally, listening is one of the best ways to learn more about others. It makes other people feel validated and gives them space to open up to you more on a deeper level.
4. Be Respectful
Creating healthy interpersonal connections requires respecting the other person in your relationship. It’s important not to misinterpret what respect in relationships actually means.
For example, showing respect doesn’t mean you have to go along with everything the other person says and does. Respect means that you value their opinions, feelings, and interests. It also means that you value their time.
Be honest with yourself and evaluate your own relationship behaviors. Make sure you’re showing respect in various ways, such as:
- Show up on time for get-togethers
- Be mindful of the other person’s feelings
- Listen even when you disagree
- Avoid being negative about activities the other person enjoys
- Keep the commitments that you make
You should also respect yourself in relationships. This means if the other person does not respect your feelings or time, it’s time to reevaluate things.
5. Show Empathy
Empathy is the ability to put yourself in other people’s shoes and understand why they feel what they feel.
Empathy also allows you to see things from another person’s perspective and feel their pain as if it were yours.
All interpersonal relationships benefit positively from empathy, and this helps strengthen bonds overall. When you show someone you understand them, it helps them feel less alone.
This understanding helps to establish a solid base of closeness and trust in relationships. It also brings other benefits to your relationships, like kindness and cooperation.
Finally, empathy can help you to regulate your own emotions better. If you’re feeling overwhelmed and stressed by a situation, you’ll be more likely to accept these feelings and understand that they happen.
6. Take Care of Your Mental Health
Sometimes you need to take care of your issues before establishing healthy relationships with others.
Mental health conditions like depression or anxiety can impact your social skills, giving you social anxiety. Even more, past relationship traumas can affect your ability to trust people and open up.
In addition, some people don’t have good communication skills in general. Many times this is due to situations that occurred during childhood.
Other mental health disorders like bipolar, thought disorders, and ADD can make it challenging to form close connections.
Long-term counseling, mental health, and wellness programs like https://sanctuarywellnesstn.com/treatment/intensive-outpatient/ can change your life.
These types of programs focus on different therapy techniques to help you. First, you’ll get individual therapy based on your situation. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is usually recommended to work through mental health issues.
CBT is a talk therapy that helps people identify and change negative thinking patterns. You’ll also get access to group therapy, allowing you to meet others with similar feelings and struggles.
Group therapy helps eliminate feelings of loneliness and isolation. You’ll also gain support and build a solid network of friends.
You may also need to take medications to help you deal with mental health symptoms. These treatments are beneficial if you’ve struggled with addiction or long-term mental health problems.
Taking care of yourself will help you get in better tune with others and form the healthy bonds you crave.
Forming Strong Interpersonal Connections
Using these tips will help you form stronger interpersonal connections over time.
Remember to be patient with yourself. If you’ve had trauma in the past, it can be challenging to open up to people. Take the time you need to form lasting bonds.
To learn more helpful relationship tips, be sure to visit the rest of our blog today!
