How To Positively Change Your Connection With Yourself And With Others
With the daily stress of work and other responsibilities, you may start drifting apart from your loved ones and cause a strain in intimate relationships. Many people don’t know how to express their emotions properly and, consequently, end up in arguments and misunderstandings with relatives and friends. Getting out of the negative cycle requires voluntary effort to reach out to others and open ourselves without fear of vulnerability to improve our relationships. Still, it is possible to use and apply the right resources and tools to help with your self-discovery journey. In our following guide, we share some insight into positively changing your connection with yourself and others.
Learn how to Listen Actively
One of the most effective ways to reach out to others and make them feel welcomed by your side is to offer a safe space for self-expression. Practicing active listening allows you to truly connect with others by giving them your full, undivided attention when sharing their ideas and opinions. That way, you can answer and follow up the conversation accordingly, making them feel listened to and worthy of attention and care. It may take some time to step back and let other people open up to you. However, once you start giving space to your loved ones to vent and lean on you, your relationships will start improving, and the feedback you will receive in return will help build stronger bonds in the long run.
Be Compassionate when You and Others Make Mistakes
Self-healing can happen through different means. However, life coaches note that writing down your thoughts and role playing situations are effective ways to learn to identify our feelings and how to convey them properly. Increasing self-awareness of specific ideas and emotions, according to these experts, can help us resolve our internal turmoils and allows us to develop a more positive mentality. Some people have grown accustomed to harsh responses whenever they catch themselves slacking off their responsibilities or when others fail to meet their expectations. We are all human, and if we understand that everyone can make mistakes, we will be more forgiving to others and ourselves when they happen.
Learn How to Deal with Negativity
During your journey, you will find yourself with people that won’t react with kindness or happiness to your intentions. When people have negative reactions, they often have nothing to do with you as a person, but rather they respond to an internal turmoil or dislike that you are representing with your actions. Regardless of the level of rejection you end up encountering when trying to connect with your loved ones, be patient and don’t take it personally. However, it’s also good to remember that you also have the right to walk away from negative people if it ends up poisoning your efforts and you start to feel like you are losing your hard-won results. Venting negative emotions during a conversation can be a good thing to get over an annoyance or grievance. Setting healthy boundaries to avoid emotional drainage will eventually filter people out of your life.
Focus on a Positive Attitude
Whenever you go through a self-improvement process, taking it step-by-step is almost as important as cherishing every achieved milestone with positivity. Rather than thinking about how much left you have to improve, it’s important to focus on how much progress you’ve managed to make in connecting with yourself and others. By putting in the effort to recognize your emotions and reframing them in a more positive light, you will slowly start to shift the way you interact with others. If you’re having trouble keeping a positive mentality, surrounding yourself with positive people can make the transition easier. Your loved ones are a good source of support and care, and if they have positive attitudes that you can look up to and imitate when you’re struggling, your bond will get stronger and deeper over time.
Focus on your personal development may not be a top priority for many people since modern life demands us to constantly worry about keeping our families fed, performing well at work, and maintaining social relationships. However, starting a self-discovery journey has long-term benefits that seep into every area of your life. If you want to get closer to your parents, siblings, friends, or partner, it can be difficult to know how to take the first step. Learning the potential struggles and difficulties you might encounter on the way can be scary. However, if you also think about the personal growth and success you can achieve by taking the initiative, the journey to self-improvement shouldn’t be delayed any further.
