Mindful relationships

6 easy mindfulness techniques for great relationships

Speaking of relationships, not many of us foresee the challenges of maintaining them. It is convenient to forge relationships and take them for granted. But that is not how it works, my friend!

If you don’t tend to your relationships with care, conflicts arise now and then. Now comes the big question- how do I incorporate care into my relationships? 

With the help of mindfulness, you can! 

The two concepts, mindfulness, and relationships go well with one other. If you are mindful, you will create peaceful and healthy relationships. If you diligently cultivate the habit of paying attention, then there would be no place for conflicts.

To help you improve your relationships, I will walk you through a set of easy mindfulness techniques. To know these techniques, continue to read.  

1. Change your attitude 

Humans operate within fixed ways of thinking; so, it is quite challenging to embrace differences. However, one must learn to accommodate differences in relationships. 

One must move away from the idea of being right and move closer to the concept of being happy.

You can easily do that if you can change your fixed thoughts. By practicing loving-kindness writing meditation, you can change your attitude. Find a set of positive affirmations and copy them by hand in a notebook or a journal. Do this exercise for about 10-15 minutes every day.

As you do this exercise, you can retrain your brain to think differently about people. After a week or so, you begin to see a shift in how you communicate with people.

2. Attention is the key 

Relationships often come with many baggages like financial issues, cultural differences, family problems, and professional rivalries.

These roadblocks can quickly strain relationships and bring the worst side of people towards the forefront. You can easily steer away from these obstacles if you are attentive.

Pay attention to what the other person says without getting defensive. For instance, if you make a presentation for your work and you receive criticism for it. Learn to pay attention to the feedback rather than getting defensive about it.

While you pay attention, you become open to incorporating the perspectives of other people in your life. This way, you will be able to transcend differences and build understanding relationships.

3. Appreciate the other

In life, we often go ahead with the same set of relations. As time passes, one tends to forget the importance of these relationships. Be it supportive parents, understanding friends, or helpful co-workers; it is essential to appreciate what you have. For instance, thank your friends when they stand by you in your hard times.

Tell your co-workers how much you appreciate their help. Make it a practice to tell people that they are essential to you. As you do that, your relationships become stronger. 

4. Acceptance is important

Good relationships begin with the complete acceptance of yourself and others. Accept yourself with all your faults and weaknesses. For instance, if you have anger-management issues, talk it out with the other person. Likewise, if the other person opens up to you about something, make sure you accept it.

Sometimes, all you have to do is accept, and open communication can help you with that. When you open up to each other, it builds trust.

So, the next time you feel a conflict arise. Remember, all you have to do is talk it out and accept.

5. Focus on communication

More often than not, conflicts in relationships arise because the other person misinterprets your words. You might say something which could unintentionally hurt the other person.

Even if you have not intended that to happen, it does. So, what can you do about it? From your side, you can initiate communication by choosing your words carefully. Remember to pause and think before you say something. Most of us don’t do that and say things without thinking twice.

Also, if you are speaking to someone, pay attention. If you feel like he/she is uncomfortable about a topic, avoid discussing it. Remember, all relationships thrive on the simple concept called communication. So, make sure that you communicate gently and healthily.

6. Practice observation

It is vital to maintain relationships, but one must be careful too. Relationships function as a driving force in one’s life. A good relationship can lift your spirits; whereas, a bad one can drain you out.

Often, we don’t notice what these relationships are doing to us. Unconsciously, we stick to toxic relationships without being aware that they are making us feel empty, sad, and uncomfortable. By observing the dynamics of the relationship, you can judge your relationships better.

For instance, notice if the other person is making you feel happy, sad, or angry. Notice if you are happy around certain people. To evaluate if the other person is right for you or not, observe. Once you do that, you can maintain distance from toxic people and focus more on loving relationships. 

Conclusion

With the help of mindfulness, you can build loving, open, safe, and honest relationships. Knowingly or unknowingly, most of us take our relationships for granted.

By refusing to see that relationships need attention, care, and love, we put those relationships in great danger. In extreme cases, those relationships die, and we lose touch with good people in life. 

Share on facebook
Share on twitter
Share on linkedin