One of the phrases we often hear is healthy relationships. Lot of people use this term without understanding what it means. To understand this phrase, let us compare this with another widely used word health. What do you mean by health? It is difficult to define what health is. Bur looking at the antonym of health, we can understand what health is. The opposite of health is disease. If you break down this word, you get two parts dis and ease. So disease means not feeling at ease. Health should mean physically feeling at ease. We also use the word discomfort to refer to a disturbance in our state of health. So it is clear that health means to be comfortable with your body.
Using the same line of reasoning, we can understand healthy relationships as being comfortable in relationships. This sounds good. But what does comfortable relationship mean? Does it mean a perfect harmony and understanding? Does it mean we should never have any differences, disputes or quarrels? We often assume that these are the requirements of healthy relationships. Again using the analogy of health, we can see that this need not be the case.
Are you in good health? I assume the answer is yes. If not, think of some healthy person known to you. Does a healthy person always remain healthy? Does he never become sick, even for a short period? Obviously, the answer is no. I think we can say with certainty that there is no one in this world, who has not had a health problem some time or the other. Yet, many people consider themselves healthy. They are not wrong. So, a better understanding of health can be as the ability to retain normal physical well being, in spite of occasional problems of illness.
Using the same line of reasoning, we can understand healthy relationships as being comfortable in relationships. This sounds good. But what does comfortable relationship mean? Does it mean a perfect harmony and understanding? Does it mean we should never have any differences, disputes or quarrels? We often assume that these are the requirements of healthy relationships. Again using the analogy of health, we can see that this need not be the case.
Are you in good health? I assume the answer is yes. If not, think of some healthy person known to you. Does a healthy person always remain healthy? Does he never become sick, even for a short period? Obviously, the answer is no. I think we can say with certainty that there is no one in this world, who has not had a health problem some time or the other. Yet, many people consider themselves healthy. They are not wrong. So, a better understanding of health can be as the ability to retain normal physical well being, in spite of occasional problems of illness.
Using the same logic, we can say that healthy relationships do not mean the total absence of misunderstandings, differences or other irritants. A relationship will be healthy as long as the people in the relationship are able to restore it to normalcy after every problem. Relationships should be like a spring. A spring gets compressed under pressure but races back to its normal position the moment the pressure is released. A good relationship should be able to withstand the onslaughts of pressures of several kinds and come back to normalcy quickly.
So, next time, you find your relationship with someone close to you under strain, do not get frustrated. Carry on with the confidence that the strain is temporary and the relationship will become normal within a short time.
Healthy relationships are easy to maintain, if you understand what the term means. Maintaining healthy relationships will make life happy.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Chitra_Rangaswami
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