One thing you will learn about relationships is they’re not static, as many will come and go throughout your lifetime. Rather, each connection you have requires nurturing and care to make it flourish. Having solid relationships with other folks can benefit you, as many positive outcomes can occur.
It’s a challenge for people to stay connected these days with the fast pace of life. However, a study conducted by Harvard University showed that those folks who live the longest and healthiest lives have good social connections.
The relationships you build bring a sense of comfort to you, and they’re a source of support when you need it most. Could you imagine your life without the friendships of others? When you genuinely connect with someone, you learn to let all the insignificant grievances go, and your ability to show compassion towards another human being increases.
Fifteen Positive Outcomes That Occur When You Nurture Your Relationships
There are so many benefits that happen when you nurture your relationships. How would a plant thrive if you never watered it? It wouldn’t be long until it withered up and died. Your relationship needs watered, fertilized, and pruned. Here are some of the positive outcomes that occur when you give your relationships the care they need.
1. You Form a Strong Alliance When You Nurture Your Relationships
A cord of three strands is not as easily broken. So, when you ally with someone, you become stronger. Together you can be more challenging than you can by yourself, and they challenge you and vice versa.
Having someone that makes you better and more robust is never a bad thing. Think of the connections in your life that made you a better person? Additionally, toxic relationships can bring out the worst in you, so it’s essential to nurture the correct associations.
2. You Become a Power Listener
Many times, people listen, but they don’t truly catch all of what’s being said. However, one of the positive outcomes of nurturing your relationships is that you become a power listener. When someone matters as well as what they have to say, you increase your listening abilities.
3. If You Nurture Your Relationships, You Learn Empathy
Empathy is something that comes when you have a strong connection with another individual. You’re able to put yourself in their shoes and feel their sentiments. Not every person will walk the same path as you in life, but being able to step into their shoes and see and feel how they do becomes effortless when you nurture and connect on a higher level.
4. You Embrace a New Point of View
Each relationship you engage in throughout life will allow you to gain fresh perspectives and a different point of view. When you nurture your relationships, you learn to embrace someone else’s opinions. Having a solid connection with someone means that they will challenge your ideas and bring new thoughts to the table for you to consider, and you listen.
5. You Learn Proper Engagement
Proper engagement is about showing up and being present. What kind of parent would you be if you never showed up? Part of having a healthy connection is being there for one another.
It means attending lunch, doing things that the other person loves, and spending quality time with one another. Your connection deepens when you have proper engagement, and you’re enriched by your conversation and time together.
6. You Gain Fresh Perspective When You Nurture Your Relationships
Your whole view of a person changes when you see them through different lenses. When you nurture your relationships, it causes intimacy, and it allows you to see and hear what they have to say. You learn to see things through their eyes and understand them on a whole new level.
7. You See Through a More Charitable Lens
It’s only natural for you to be harmful when you’re upset by something another person has done. However, when you look at that person through a different lens, you see things quite inversely. Did you know that there’s always more than one way to interpret someone’s behavior? When you work to build an attitude of closeness and generosity, you become more likely to work together rather than accuse them.
8. Your Accountability Improves
Accountability is essential as when you own your mistakes, it means you’re pointing the finger at others less. It doesn’t matter how or what happened, but the fact is that you want to take full responsibility and move on. When you nurture your relationships, your accountability improves.
9. You Can Speak Freely
Another benefit when you nurture your relationships is that you learn that you can speak freely with one another. People appreciate your honesty, and when you have a healthy connection, you understand that you don’t have to beat around the bush.
You can be free to say what’s on your mind and in your heart, and they will feel the same. Your loved ones will respect your candor as they know that you’re honest and truthful with them.
10. If You Nurture Your Relationships, Quality Time Becomes Commonplace
Why is it that spending quality time seems so challenging these days? Life is busy, but you make time for the things most important to you. When you nurture your relationships, they shift in the priority level.
This person becomes a priority to you, and you want to keep in touch. Having time together to hug, make eye contact, laugh, and smile makes your life worthwhile.
11. You’re Less Critical and Offer More Praise
Speaking life into someone is easier said than done, but it’s vital for their wellbeing. When you nurture someone, you become less critical and offer more praise. One of the most unique ways that this is demonstrated is through plants.
There have been many studies conducted to show how plants respond to both positive and negative talk. A 2018 study in Korea proved that words could hurt even vegetation. The study was cited by the National Library of Medicine. A group of students decided to use two sets of plants and speak either positively or negatively to them over thirty days.
At the end of the time frame, the plants that were spoken harshly to were poor in appearance and didn’t have the health and vitality of the praised plants. If negativity can do this to a plant, then what can it do to a human being? When you nurture your relationships, you become less critical and offer more praise to help build them up.
12. You Deliver on the Commitments You Make
It’s hard to honor your commitments in life, especially when you’re required to make so many. Between your job, family, and other requirements, you can become stretched too thin. However, one of the outcomes that occur when you nurture your relationships is that you prioritize delivering on the commitments you make.
13. Your Focus Shifts
When you deeply connect with someone, you shift the focus from yourself to them. Additionally, the more attention you show others, the more willing them are to open up to you about their lives. One of the benefits of nurturing your relationships is that you want what’s best for them. When challenges arise, you’re eager to find a resolution.
14. You Learn What You Truly Like About One Another
When you nurture and care for someone, you learn what you genuinely like and respect about them. You know about all the traits and mannerisms that make them unique.
Part of cultivating a good relationship with someone is learning all their attributes. You find things you respect about them and what makes them so unique.
15. You Rarely Jump to Conclusions
When you care about someone on a deeper level, you won’t jump to conclusions. Instead, you want to get the whole picture and not be hasty in judgment. You remain open-minded because you have the best interests at heart for this person.
Final Thoughts on the Positive Things That Happen When You Nurture Your Relationships
Throughout your lifetime, you will have many relationships. Some of your connections will be good, while others will struggle. Still, you learn the importance of putting time and effort into each one.
You can look back over the associations you’ve already had and seen the ones that flourished probably did so because you took time to care for them. When you nurture your relationships, it requires you to take a hard look at yourself. You do the work needed to adjust things, and you take the focus from you and put it onto someone else.
In each connection you have, ask yourself how this relationship is better because of you and not in spite of you. You must never lose sight of the opportunities that these relationships bring to your life. Can you imagine where you would be without your close friends, partner, parents, children, and coworkers?
The more you put into your relationships, the more you will get out of them. So, strive to make them not just incrementally better but go out of your way to make them exponentially thrive.
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