Healing

Why Relationships Matter for Healing

We’re social creatures wired for connection.» The alliances we create with others — family, friends or partners — are going to impact your mental, emotional and physical health in significant ways. Healthy relationships also offer tremendous love, support, and feelings of belongingness, which all contribute to healing.

Other unhealthy or toxic relationships can do the opposite, creating stress, anxiety and even physical illness. Chapter 5: No Man is an Island Relationships as Healing In addition, we will explore the importance of self-love and how developing a good relationship with yourself contributes to the healing process.

This is based on data until October 2023.

Several studies show that strong supportive relationships improve health outcomes. Healthy relationships can provide emotional support, lower stress and encourage healthy behaviors.

Here are some of the ways relationships influence our health:

Feeling Safe: Specialists provide a sense of emotional safety due to our close bonds with each other Emotional support buffers us from stress, anxiety and depression. That someone is with us can ground us to deal with the issue and heal old wounds.

Reduced Stress and Increased Immunity: Healthy relationships decrease the levels of stress hormones (like cortisol) in the body. Such dialed-down stress contributes to improved immune function, lower blood pressure and a reduced risk for chronic diseases including heart disease.”

Encouragement of Health Behaviors: Those with solid social support are more inclined to engage in healthy behaviors, such as regular physical activity, healthy eating, and appropriate usage of health care services. Healthy relationships that reinforce positive behaviors are essential for health and healing.

The longevity link: Studies show that people with strong social ties live longer and have healthier lives. The companionship and sense of belonging relationships provide can help improve life and even extend it.

Social support — so, you see, trauma, healing from trauma, supporting through trauma — social support is critical. Of course, you’re going through your process about what you are going through, but it is always good to be in the presence of people that can support you and show mad love in the time of crisis so that someone can help you put things in perspective and start the healing. One of the most powerful factors in healing from trauma, in fact, is relational healing: the ability to connect freely with another human being in a safe, supportive environment.

Self-Love and Self-Compassion: The Healing Powers

We must start the journey to heal our relationships with ourselves first before we heal our relationships with others and self-love and self-compassion are the corner stones to our emotional and mental health and followed as path to healing. Unable to love ourselves, we struggle to set and keep up healthy boundaries, to surround ourselves with good people, to recover from old hurt.

This means that we have to heal our relationship with ourselves in order to fully heal our relationships with others; self-love and self-compassion are vital to our emotional wellness and guide us through the healing journey. Without self-love, we struggle to establish healthy boundaries, attract healthy people or come to terms with our pain.

In order to move into healing of others our entire self needs healing; love and compassion for ourselves are the key ingredients to emotional health that shape the narrative of our healing experience. Without self-love, we struggle to keep healthy boundaries, build our circles with good people and recover from previous trauma.

Self-love: If you want to love your child well, you must first love yourself. And it’s about being into your own happiness and your worth. There are things we do that benefit our physical, emotional, spiritual selves.

Self-compassion is the practice of being kind to yourself during difficult times. Rather than giving ourselves a hard time for not being enough, we respond with kindness and care to ourselves like we would to a friend. Via self-compassion we have a road to recovery: We embrace our humanity in all its amazing fallibility and, peril, learn from nightmares to return stronger.

Setting healthy boundaries— One part of self-love is setting healthy boundaries with people. Boundaries help protect us and our well-being and space so we aren’t drained or taken over by toxic relationships. Boundaries are pivotal in bringing balance back in relationships and can serve to also ensure healing is successful.

Healthy Relationships Lay the Groundwork for Healing

You just have to have a relationship with yourself and learn to develop and maintain a healthy relationship with others. The foundation of a healthy relationship includes mutual respect, trust, support, and open communication. In them, we can express our emotions, heal and grow in a safe space.”

Not just love — Key components of healthy relationships

Trust and Honesty: Trust is the foundation of every strong relationship. Healthy relationships allow each side to be vulnerable, articulate themselves, and depend on each other without fear.

Mutual Respect: Respect is the foundation of maintaining and establishing healthy boundaries and implementing all needs as needed. In healthy relationships, the two partners honor when one needs to express feelings, thoughts and space.

Breeding Emotional Support: Healthy relationships offer us a safety net of emotional support. Being heard and validated in your emotions heals and maintains the strength of your self-worth.

Maintaining open lines of communication are important to understanding one another’s needs, resolving conflicts, and keeping the connection alive. It creates trust and makes sure you feel valued within the relationship.

The Double-Edged Sword of Mutual Growth and Support: Healthy relationships provide mutual support for growth as individuals. They nurture, challenge and grow so that all may grow and thrive, both individually and, as couple, family, or community.

The Baggage of Toxic Relationships & Healing

Healthy relationships invite healing; toxic relationships may do the opposite. Poisonous relationships are characterized by patterns of manipulation, control, dishonesty or emotional abuse. These relationships can also drain, stress, and hinder our ability to heal fully.

Signs of a toxic relationship include:

Ongoing Criticism or Belittlement: Toxic assets will often criticize you or belittle your work, which leads you to feel inadequate, and can lower your self-esteem.

Manipulation or Gaslighting: One partner may try to manipulate or control the other in unhealthy relationships, causing them to become confused and question themselves. Gaslighting is a very particular kind of manipulation in which the abuser causes the target to question their reality.

No support: In a toxic relationship, there can be a particular person who can lock the downward pattern, not providing you with some emotional support for your recovery, or inspire you to act or succeed.

Unresolved Conflict: Signs of Healthy Relationship Conflict is resolved in healthy relationships through open communication and mutual understanding. Toxic relationships can lead to emotional detachment, anger, and more tension when you try to avoid fighting.

But if you’re in a toxic relationship, do what you can to help yourself — whether that means setting boundaries, seeking professional help, or, in some cases, walking away.

Steps Toward Healing Relationships

They also include some real-life strategies for developing healing connections in your life:

Have positive people around you: Surround yourself with people who lift you up, who want to see you improve, who inspire you to be your best self. They are the people who guide you through it.

Be open about what your needs are, what you want, and what your boundaries are. Kirstin encouraged healthy relationships built on mutual understanding and respect.

Get help: Sometimes, you need someone professional to help you work through the old trauma or emotional injuries. Counseling or therapy can allow a safe space for a conversation about difficult feelings, and it offers tools for building healthy relationships.

Practice Forgiveness: Forgiveness means forgiving, not just other people, but yourself. One of the most potent liberators we have is forgiveness.

Ease in with Your Relationships: Work on your relationships actively! Invest in the relationships that are important to you via communication, catching up, spending time together, kindness, etc.

Healing Through Community

Besides individual connections, participation in a wider community can be healing, as well. The community provides a feeling of belonging, mutual support, and an opportunity to work toward a common goal through religious meetings, support groups, or other social networks.

A beautiful community reminds us we are not alone and that we are worthy as human beings. It is a comfort, a lifeline in times of need. To be part of a community also compels us to give and receive support, reminding us that healing is a collective process instead of a solitary one.

Repairing Relationships—The Connection of Transformational Change

A study by Coan et al. (2006) showed that social support and close ties to others provide protection to the brain and body against the effects of stress and promote healing.

Connecting is great

Much of this conversation has been about how vital relationships with self and others are in the healing process. But self love allows you to have healthy, empathetic relationships and provide a good foundation for all facets of your life — emotional, physical and spiritual. These connections are created through trust, communication, and mutual respect, and can play an important role in supporting healing, growth, and joy.

Always keep in mind relationships are not only about what others bring to the table, but what we bring to them too. Our power comes from being compassionate, being empathetic, being kind, and building relationships that can help us on our way to healing and being a part of something bigger than ourselves.

Reference

Coan, J. A., et al. (2006).Social support and the brain: The social regulation of the neural response to stress. Psychological Science, 17(6), 532–539. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01749.x