Having someone to turn to, laugh and having adventures is good for your soul and your mental health. And you don’t have to be perfect to have great friends – here are some tips.
Finding someone to share your life with can be challenging, even finding someone to share a meal or activities is tough. But if you take a breath, here are tips to building better relationships. Sometimes we don’t fully understand art of relationships, it seems complicated. But one doesn’t need to love oneself perfectly to love others. Women and men need others in their life. In fact, a recent study showed bromances were more satisfying in their emotional intimacy, compared to their heterosexual romances. But sometimes, we get in our own way of finding and enjoying relationships.
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Everyone has flaws, but it shouldn’t interfere with having true friends and meaningful love. Dr. Carla Manly has written a new book about how to build better relationships – both friends and lovers, including gay and straight. It explains you can be imperfect and still have great relationships. And explains the need for multiple people are in to fulfill our needs. Her new book is The Joy of Imperfect Love and explains the need and process of building relationships.
Here are some tips and insight from Dr. Manly
- Sometimes the wisest step is to invest primarily in the relationship you have with yourself. Taking a time out from dating and relationships can give your soul a chance to reset and breathe.
- You do not need to love ourselves perfectly to love others well. The journey of imperfect love never asks for perfection; it only asks you strive to evolve toward the best self.
- Regardless of the pasts, you have the power to leave intergenerational wounds and patterns behind us so you can enjoy life more fully.
- Relationships with others tend to mirror the relationship with yourself and the greater world. Making the choice to lovingly invest in relationships can be life-changing.
- When we dive into relationships with honesty, courage, and respect, you cannot help but change and evolve.
- Love—or its absence—is where our lives begin and end. It is never too late to foster love in one’s inner and external life. In today’s fragmented world where material success and excess are often prioritized, millions suffer from empty, false, or broken promises of love. Yet, no matter how much you have in the external world, the lack of love from a partner or friend is hurtful. Everyone has the power to reset—to shift priorities—and focus on fostering genuine love in all our relationships, from romantic partnerships and family connections to our vital friendships.
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Finding the right relationships takes patience and investigation. The first step is to consider what you have to offer – what you have to give in a relationship. The second step is to determine what you want. The third step is to put yourself out there, keep your heart open, and dare to find the person who fits well into the puzzle of your life.
Having friends and others in your life is key to your mental health. But finding others to share your life is a process, and it is important to give yourself permission to be happy on in the journey.
