Human are wired for personal connections. Relationship can contribute so much to your happiness while being a huge source our mental fatigue. Mindfulness is a practice that helps you be more present in the moment, and it’s a great way to deepen your relationships.
Whether with a romantic partner , friend, family member or even work associates , a high quality relationship involves
Prioritizing the relationship
Open communication
Healthy conflict resolution
Shared interests
Emotional intimacy
Acceptance and forgivenessDoctors and therapists have recognized the value of mindfulness, but more recently, couples have started to see the benefits as well. Recent studies show that those who take on mindfulness practices are able to stay connected and cultivate positive experiences when they spend time with their partner (Erickson, 2012). Mindfulness can help you and your partner have more fulfilling relationships, simply by spending less time practicing on your own.
Relationship presence doesn’t just apply to romantic couples. You can practice mindfulness in all of your relationships. Here are few strategies you can practice to make a healthy relationship:
1.Practicing Empathetic relationship
Mindfulness can help you in relationships because it helps you gain an awareness of yourself and the other person. This awareness can help you make better decisions, which will lead to a healthier relationship.
Empathic listening is a willingness to step outside of distracted mind and listen to their words in a non judgemental way. Empathy is the grace note of empathic relationship, as it allows the speaker to feel safe, validated and understood.
When you listen with empathy, it helps your partner feel understood and cared for. With this understanding, your partner will be more likely to share their feelings and thoughts with you, which can create a stronger bond between the two of you.
As as empathetic listener, you must be willing to:
Allow the other person to make conversations without interrupting.
Remain complete attentive to the other person is saying.
Ask open ended question that invites more from speaker.
Avoid coming to premature conclusion.
You can start practicing empathic listening with your partner, family member and close friends. In your next interaction, commit to 10 minutes of active listening where you are solely focused on the other person and also what they are saying.
2. Mindful Speaking
Mindfulness can help us in many ways. It can help us stay focused and productive, it can help us to be in the moment and feel more connected with the people we’re with, and it can even make us more mindful of our own thoughts and feelings.
Mindful speaking is one way that mindfulness helps relationships. It helps us listen better so that we can better understand what someone else is saying, which will lead to them feeling understood and heard—but it also helps us learn how to hold back when something isn’t quite right—so that they don’t feel excluded or ignored by what they say next time around!
Resist the temptation of to simply react to someone’s words or actions. Take a moment to choose your words carefully. Speak in a ways that are loving, compassionate and respectful. Try to use a calm , non threatening voice even if the other person is agitated or angry.
As you speak more mindfully, those around you feel connection with your words. It helps to improve not only quality of your relationships, but also quality of your inner world.
3.Taking Disagreement in a positive way
Mindfulness helps you take the time to reflect on what is happening in the moment and understand how it relates to your past experiences. By doing this, you can better express yourself and understand yourself. This will help you be more assertive, which is key for any relationship.
When you are mindful, you will be able to see the other person’s point of view as well as your own—and that’s important! When you listen actively and reflectively, it helps both parties feel heard, understood, and respected.
For example, if your partner says something hurtful or insensitive about you or someone else in front of others (like at work), mindfulness can help reduce negative emotions by helping you take the time to reflect on what has been said so that you can respond appropriately (and kindly).
When you are able control emotional reactions with your spouse or partner , you feel more centred, calm and capable of resolving issue in a loving manner. This ability alone can save you from years of mental and emotional distress that depletes your emotional energy.
4. Expressing Gratification towards each other
Expressing gratification towards each other is a great way to maintain a healthy relationship. Main reason for any relationship breakdown is ego. But when you learn to express gratification to the other persons your mentality remains down to earth.
In relationships, mindfulness can help you express your gratification towards each other. You can learn how to express yourself and your emotions in a better way. Mindfulness helps us realise that everything around us is changing constantly, even though it looks the same at first glance. By practicing mindfulness, we will be able to accept change as part of life and not get stuck in our old habits that no longer serve us anymore.
5.Being Emotionally present during conversation
Being emotionally present during conversation can make all the difference.
Emotional awareness is one of the most important skills to learn as a human being, and it’s especially critical when you’re trying to make new friends.
It’s hard to be genuinely interested in someone you don’t know, and it’s even harder to form a lasting connection with someone who doesn’t feel like they’re truly there for you. But by practicing emotional awareness, you can train yourself to pick up on the signs that indicate whether or not someone’s interested in connecting with you. You’ll also be able to respond appropriately when someone does approach you—whether it be with a friendly smile or an awkward silence.
So how do you practice emotional awareness? First off, pay close attention to your own behaviour: Does your body language say “I’m here” or “I’m not here”? Are you smiling at people who aren’t smiling back? Are your eyes wide open or focused on something else entirely?
This type of emotional awareness in relationship leads to more intimacy, trust and security in your relationship.
6. Communicate authentically
Communication is the key to any successful relationship. If you have a good communication skill, then you will be able to understand your partner and improve the relationship by making it stronger. When we communicate with our partner, we need to use words that are not only clear but also accurate. This way, both parties will be able to understand each other more clearly and respond accordingly. It is also important for us to avoid blaming each other for misunderstandings or arguing about small issues that often lead to bigger problems later on down the line. The best way to improve communication skills is through mindfulness meditation practice which helps us become more aware of our thoughts, feelings and behaviours so that we can better understand ourselves and others around us as well as ourselves within ourselves.”
7. Spending quality time with your partner
One of the valuable things you can do for the health of your relationship is to spend quality time with your partner without any distraction. It’s a chance to get to know the person they are in their own environment, without any outside influences or distractions. You can talk about anything you want: your day, your problems, what was on TV last night… And it will be easy because you won’t have any interruptions or distractions to deal with.
It’s also a great opportunity to bond over something that neither of you will have to share with anyone else later. You’ll have time alone together, which makes this an incredibly intimate experience for both of you. It takes a lot of trust in another person that they won’t try anything inappropriate when they know they’re alone together—but that kind of trust doesn’t come easily! But spending time like this without distractions means that when those times DO come up later on down the road (when there are other friends around), you’ll both be able to remember how intimate those moments really were because they happened in this special setting!
Conclusion
In summary, we learnt that Mindfulness can be used as a tool for helping to improve your relationship. Mindfulness helps everyone to focus their attention on the present moment, and works to heighten an individual’s awareness of their own thoughts and emotions. And when used in a relationship, a heightened sense of self-awareness is incredibly helpful in developing conflict resolution and better communication skills. Obviously, the main benefit of mindfulness is that it can help you maintain a state of calm at all times.
References –
Declutter your Mind – How to stop worrying, relieve anxiety and eliminate negative thinking , S.J Scott and Barrie Davenport