Building Positive Relationships
“No man is an Island, entire of itself; every man is piece of the continent.” - John Donne
Relationships are fundamental to our existence. From the time you are born, you form relationships. In an auto-mode, a mother learns to nurture her baby, the baby in turn learns how to grow by observing and continuously learning. We learn from our parents, teachers, friends, relatives and in fact, the whole eco system. We continuously imbibe beliefs, values and form an understanding of the world around us through observation, experiences and learning. We learn to relate to self and others and continuously strive to form positive relationships whether it is our friends, peers, team members or partners. However there is more to Relationships and recent trends show that relationships are the root cause for most of the mental health issues.
We often tend to think that relationships work by themselves. For example in a marriage, couples think that their love is sufficient to make their marriage work well. If we extrapolate the same attitude to other parts of our lives – for example someone who loves to paint or loves ballet – will they become proficient if they just love it? No, they put in long hours of hard work, commitment and dedication to achieve some proficiency in it. Then why do we assume that we will have thriving relationships without actually understanding or working on them. Relationships are complicated because they require dealing with people, their emotions, beliefs, values in an ever-changing dynamic situation. Every relationship is different and requires different ways to manage them. There are several dimensions to relationships – self-awareness, emotional intelligence, perceptions, communication to start with a few. And if we take just one dimension of ‘Communication’ – that in itself is a huge area that requires constant work.
A Relationship coach works with you through several mental models and tools to improve and build your inter-personal skills helps you to have positive and thriving relationships.
Usha Venkatesh
