Every love story is unique – like snowflakes, no two are the same – but there are certain things that healthy relationships have in common.
Today, I have an incredible guest post from Adanna, creator of Love.Inspire.Learn, on what key factors make for a healthy relationship.
Adanna is a lifestyle blogger who shares weekly content on personal development, productivity, self-care, finances, and books. When she’s not blogging, she enjoys reading, learning, and doing yoga. Give her blog a read and find her on social media with the handle @thelilcommunity.
Other Guest Posts You Might Like:
♡ On the Importance of Finding Self-Love
♡ How to Have More Effective Communication in Relationships
Keep reading to find out what 5 traits all healthy relationships include.
5 Traits that Define Healthy Relationships
BY: Adonna
Love and relationships are beautiful yet complex aspects of everyday life. Whether it’s with a romantic partner, a family member, or friends, our relationships are crucial to our well-being. But, only if those relationships are healthy.
Understanding the traits that define healthy relationships will help you improve the quality of your life. Although important for all relationships, today’s post will focus on those of a romantic nature.
5 Traits of Healthy Relationships
1. You Respect Each Other’s Values
Values are what we hold true, what we find important in life. These principles govern a person’s life – they’re an integral part of a person’s identity and philosophy.
It’s important, then, to know your partner’s values upfront. When you’re aware of each other’s guiding principles, you’ll know when you’re crossing a line. You’ll also know if it’s a value you can respectfully tolerate.
Of course, it’s great if you have similar values in a relationship, but that’s not always possible. But the most important thing is that you respect each other’s values and help them maintain them.
2. You Respect Each Other’s Individuality
We’re all unique people with different perspectives, backgrounds, histories, interests, and more. We bring all that into our relationships. And it’s this uniqueness that attracts us.
However, when we enter a relationship, sometimes, we lose ourselves to another person. Sometimes the other person tries to get us to like what they like or become more like them.
But changing who you are for the sake of another leads to unhappiness. You lose your individuality and are no longer the person you were.
In healthy relationships, you respect each other’s individuality. Instead of getting the other person to like what you do and change who they are, you create new experiences together.
3. You Respect Each Other’s Independence
Just like our need for individuality, the ability to maintain autonomy is crucial. It’s vital to have time together, but it’s equally important to balance that with a healthy amount of time apart or with friends.
We each have our own interests, routines, and hobbies. And we need time to pursue those interests together and independently.
4. You’re Willing To Have Uncomfortable Conversations
Communication is a huge part of any relationship. And you have to be willing to be honest and discuss tough conversations.
You need to check in with your partner regularly and ensure that the relationship is going in the direction you both want. Take time to discuss your past, your goals for the future, what your non-negotiables are, how you feel about money, and what your triggers are.
Related Read: Dear Dating Bitch: How to Handle Difficult Conversations with Your Partner
5. You Don’t Harbor Expectations, But Rather Establish Clear Boundaries
The thing about expectations in relationships is they are usually unvoiced. Most of the expectations we bring into a relationship are constructs of our past experiences and family dynamics. We should each be respected, but you need to declare your likes and dislikes. No one can read your mind and predict what you want or like.
Early on in the relationships, it is necessary to establish clear boundaries and get to know each other better.
Related Read: Five Conversations You Need to Have In the First 30 Days of Dating
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Healthy Relationships Conclusion
Thanks so much to Adanna for sharing this post with me.
What other traits do healthy relationships have in common? Let me know in the comments below.
As always, thanks so much for reading! And if you’re interested in writing a guest blog post for me, I’m always open to collaboration – find more information here.
xx
Katie
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10 Comments
It was great guest writing for you and your reading community. Relationships are definitely a work in progress that requires compassion and understanding and respect. It seems that having uncomfortable conversations is something a lot of people struggle with, including me.
I completely agree – and I loved having you on!
These are some great traits of a healthy relationship. I am glad that you point out the willingness to have hard and uncomfortable conversations. The unwillingness to be honest and have these uncomfortable conversations are what makes many relationships go sour. Sex is not everything in a relationship, but it’s very very important. My trait of a healthy relationship is frequent hot steamy sex.
Lol, well sure, that’s important too.
Having tough conversations is a good one. I am so glad my husband and I are able to have tough conversations because they will come up. This was a good post!
I’m so glad you enjoyed! Thanks for commenting!
Very true! We’d say communication is the number one factor for a healthy relationship. Being able to discuss anything is vital.
Yes – it’s so important to feel comfortable expressing yourself, even when it’s an uncomfortable topic
having the difficult conversations is something that took a WHILE for me to get comfortable with. I am lucky to have a partner that understands and struggles with this concept the same way I do so there’s rarely pressure to have the conversations until we’re both in the state of mind to have them. over time it’s gotten easier and now we can just say ‘hey listen, I’m sorry it took so long for me to say something but I didn’t want to say anything out of anger’ and we go from there.
love this post!
Totally agree! Thanks so much for commenting