Hey folks – I’ve been thinking about how much “people impact people” for the last few weeks and doing a bit of browsing online to see what I could come up with about how it tied to your health. What I discovered were a lot of scholarly papers that had been cited a lot, like this one (cited 3,557 times at the time of this posting), and some good little write ups here and there. One of my personal favorites was from the Australian Child and Youth Health (CYH) site CYH.com – particularly its section for 18 to 25 year-old people.
I know – I know – we’re either falling out of that bracket, or past it – but I honestly thought the information in it was solid. If you’ll excuse the Australian terminologies – I’d like to share some of that with you.
Everyday you interact with people. You might hang out with them because you want to or because you don’t have any choice. You might really like them or not think much of them at all.
Relationships are not just about who you are ‘going out with’ or ‘hooking up with’. They are about the interaction you have with people every day. Your relationship might be close, supportive, stressful or really not matter to you much. Here are some examples.
- Family – You might or might not live with them; get along with them or have massive fights; never have met them; or they are your best friends.
- Your peers – Some might be your closest mates; others might be people you don’t like at all…
- Online mates – Never seen their face but chat all the time
- TV, movie characters or our favourite band – You probably have never met them, but you see or hear them all the time.
- School or work – You might not hang out with them if you didn’t have to.
- Your partner - He or she could be your best mate or the person who gets to you most!
- Your butcher, your doctor, your postie, your local politician – You might meet regularly or never meet. We have a relationship with our community whether we feel a part or separate from it.
- Your child/children
I pretty much nabbed that entire first section from the article I’ll cite at the end of this post. Why? Because I feel like it’s valid – and I love the usage of the word “mate” (as an American who has never been to Australia – I’m fascinated by the use of the term in everyday speech).
Haha - illustrating Social Relationships here again -- but can you believe that I found the exact same modeling group from the header image in a different picture 
How dope is that!?
The article points out some ways relationships effect you positively…
- Make you feel like you belong and are valued.
- Increase your confidence.
- Provide understanding, respect, trust and care.
- Support you to try out ideas, new things or discuss your opinions.
- Provide a safe place to be, and learn about, yourself.
And then it goes on to offer up some aspects of healthy relationships in its closing (which I’ve abridged a bit)…
- Respect
- Trust
- Honesty
- Safety
- Equality
- Consistency
- Value
- Security/loyalty
- Empathy
- Genuineness
I really did think it was a solid article about the basics that people in general should look for in relationships (not just 18 to 25 year old folks, although I would encourage you to share this information with your kids if you have any).
As promised – here’s the link to the article (and there was other stuff in there that I skipped over, so check it out) – but why mention it in the first place?
Well the impact on human interactions on your health is a well-researched and documented field of study. It’s been hypothesized, tested and (practically) proven for years that if you don’t have a fair amount or quality of relationships – you’re basically more prone to sickness and suicide (who knew!?). Like – research studies actually conclude this – or at least link a correlation/causality between the degree of the two.
So do take care of those relationships folks – even the ones we admittedly take for granted. Some are good for you (for instance, the ones that have the traits above), but some are toxic for you. I’m not saying the people on the other end were bad people or anything – matter of fact I still speak highly of them – but I can think of 3 relationships in particular I’ve just had to cut ties with because they were just bad for me. I mean I had to end communication entirely. Some people I speak with much less – but we do still speak when we see one another. There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s Life.
What do you think makes a good relationship? Has a relationship ever impacted your health? How did you handle it? What would you tell someone who is in a bad relationship (and we’re talking general level here – this can be a friendship, etc.)? Tell me your thoughts in the Comment Section below.
Peace and thanks for reading.
