Why relationships are crucial to your health and happiness

Posted on October 14, 2014

The number of people who say they have no one with whom to discuss important matters has nearly tripled in the past 30 years. This is troubling because having good connections with others provides a whole host of health and wellness benefits.

Close relationships give us the opportunity to love and be loved; they can be a source of fun, and laughter is a great stress reliever; and relationships influence our emotional well-being and development.

One of the best ways to build stronger connections with others is a technique called Active Constructive Responding. How we respond to a person’s good news is as important for the health of the relationship as how you respond to bad news.

Responding in an active and constructive way means we help the sharer of the good news relive it by showing authentic interest and asking questions. This style actually benefits both the sharer and the responder because it generates positive emotions; as a result, both people walk away from the conversation feeling better.

Active constructive responding takes just a minute or two, but the relationship payoff is huge. If we support other people when they share good news with us, they’ll be more likely to come to us with bad news because we’ve built up a bank of trust.

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Source material from U.S. News