Life Lessons 101 – Keeping Relationships Alive and Thriving
Welcome back to my Life Lessons 101 series at the Smorgasbord. In this episode I’m discussing the importance of nurturing relationships and never taking one for granted.
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All relationships are work and require tending to. If they aren’t nurtured, they won’t last happily. Like a plant, people need compassion, understanding, love, and tolerance to thrive. When I say work, I mean a good kind of work, like when we go to our jobs we enjoy doing, working on projects that we enjoy, not tedious work. Work doesn’t have to mean something is a chore, but, putting in the attentive work in a relationship will always give us a better payoff. I use the word work for lack of a better word. I don’t mean keeping a relationship thriving should mean laborious work, rather more – giving a relationship the attention it needs to flourish and stay alive.
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and require tending to. If they aren’t nurtured, they won’t last happily. Like a plant, people need compassion, und
Working at a relationship means being aware and conscious of our partner’s needs by listening, asking questions and showing interest in our partner’s life, passions, and livelihood. Often people tend to take their relationships for granted, simply because we may be married and feel we’ve already achieved the work put into the relationship to get to that stage of wedded bliss. But that couldn’t be further from the truth because in order to keep that relationship healthy and alive, we must always remember to give it the food and love it needs to remain healthy and thriving. The plant analogy – if we forget to water our plants, they’re going to wilt. With loving care and water, we revive them, as we revive a relationship. If you ignore the plant long enough, it’s inevitably going to die, just as the good in a relationship can.
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erstanding, love, and tolerance
Just because we may have had a partner for what seems a long time and we’re used to their habits, moods, and giving them and ourselves space, some tend to forget the magic ingredients that keep relationships fun and engaging like keeping each other interested in each other’s lives – spending time together, and just as important – spending time apart enjoying personal interests.
There is always work to be done in a partnership, or let’s use the term, upkeep. Just as our homes have potential to look like a cyclone went through after not tending to daily upkeep of law and order in the home, neglected relationships will take the same hit. Relationships thrive on give-and-take. If only one is doing all the giving, that is not going to result in a long-term healthy relationship and will eventually hinder it. It doesn’t matter how long the relationship has endured, if we continue to feed it with love, compassion, interest, and understanding, it will continue to thrive – not just exist. Like a plant (again), if it isn’t paid any attention or fed/watered, would we expect that plant to thrive or wither? We want to be able to interact with and enjoy spending time with our partners, not draw apart.
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to thri
What do we want most from a relationship?
- Acceptance
- Love
- Compassion
- Trust
- Understanding
- Communication
- Interest
- Respect
- Reciprocation
- And for myself, a big one is – sense of humor
These are the most important qualities a relationship should offer, and the qualities that will sustain a solid relationship.
How To Keep Things Fresh and Keep the Interest and Love Flowing?
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ve. When I say work,
I mean a good kind of work, like when we go to our jobs we enjoy doing, working on projects that we enjoy, not tedious work. Work doesn’t have to mean something is a chore, but, putting in the attentive work in a relationship will always give us a better payoff. I use the word work for lack of a better word. I don’t mean keeping a relationship thriving should mean laborious work, rather more – giving a relationship the attention it needs to flourish and stay alive.Working at a relationship means being aware and conscious of our partner’s needs by listening, asking questions and showing interest in our partner’s life, passions, and livelihood. Often people tend to take their relationships for granted, simply because we may be married and feel we’ve already achieved the work put into the relationship to get to that stage of wedded bliss. But that couldn’t be further from the truth because in order to keep that relationship healthy and alive, we must always remember to give it the food and love it needs to remain healthy and thriving. The plant analogy – if we forget to water our plants, they’re going to wilt. With loving care and water, we revive them, as we revive a relationship. If you ignore the plant long enough, it’s inevitably going to die, just as the good in a relationship can.
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