Building Healthy Relationships

Have you have wondered if a relationship you are in is toxic? Maybe it is a friend that you started hanging out with because they were popular, or maybe it was a person you started dating that slowly spiraled into a lot of conflict. Whatever the case may be, I want to help give you some practical advice for building healthy relationships. 

You see, when we first meet someone, they are usually awesome and fun to be around. Then over time their true colors may start showing up. This could look like them speaking to you in disrespectful manners, standing you up, making you feel bad about yourself, or simply just mistreating you in some way. It could also be that someone is extremely controlling and manipulating. We want to dive in to how we avoid these toxic relationships, but in order to do that, we must first talk about what a healthy relationship looks like. 

Any healthy relationship must first start off with a firm foundation. In a dating relationship for example, your firm foundation would be developing a strong friendship before making the commitment to date each other. You would utilize your time asking questions about one another, finding similar interests, enjoying fun activities, etc. Over time you would then develop feelings for one another and begin dating. In this dating period, you would continue to get to know each other until you fall in love and then eventually get married. More2Life encourages waiting till you are married to engage in sexual activity to avoid the risk of Sexually Transmitted Diseases and teen pregnancy. These things could surface many struggles and problems that could distract you from your goals and your future. 

So how do we avoid these toxic relationships? First, I would advise you to surround yourself around healthy influences. These are people that have similar mindsets, goals and positivity. They are people that are going to help lift you up when you fall. They will encourage and bring out the best in you. Next, I would be very aware of red flags in both friendships and in dating relationships. 

These red flags could include:

·      Experimenting with Drugs and Alcohol

·      Violence

·      Jealous

·      No trust

·      Controlling Nature

·      Story of Crazy “Exes”

·      Getting into trouble

If you notice any of these red flags, then it is way easier to end the relationship when you first notice, because the longer you wait, the harder it is to do. More2Life encourages you to make the best possible choices for your future because we know that every single decision, we make will affect us one way or another.