A Life Worth Living Requires Healthy Relationships & Belonging
Life’s not always easy and rose-colored. It can be tricky, extremely challenging, and pretty draining. For some, it can result in disorientation, depression, and even worse. Fortunately, however, most people are able to find and identify reasons to value their lives.
The Meaning of Relationships & Belonging
It might not surprise that 60% consider “family and friends” as an essential part of a meaningful and fulfilled life. The most relevant source of meaning in life for many of us is relationships with others. Relationships are the foundational driver of belonging and ultimately of happiness. Belongingness is the human emotional need to be an accepted group member. Whether it is family, co-workers, friends, or something else. We all want to belong and be part of something. As per Abraham Maslow https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abraham_Maslow
it’s part of our nature. He suggested that the need to belong is a significant source of human motivation and meaning. According to Maslow, it’s one of five human needs in his hierarchy of needs.
Roy Baumeister and Mark Leary argue that belongingness is such a fundamental human motivation that we feel severe consequences for not belonging. The need to belong exists across all cultures and different types of people. We all seek frequent and positive interactions as well as caring, respectful, and lasting relationships with others.
Consequently, building and maintaining healthy relationships with family, friends, and the broader groups and communities we belong to substantially contribute to our well-being, happiness, fulfillment, and meaning in life. The better we get at building strong relationships, the happier and more fulfilled we become as individuals, at work, and in our private life. Building strong relations requires that we commit to creating our own relational intelligence and treat each other with respect and kindness.
Reflection & Action
We should become more proactive and intentional about learning essential skills and habits to build great relationships and appreciate them. Concretely, this means that we put in more time and effort to maintain close personal relationships, look well after them, develop them, and face and deal constructively with potential relationship conflicts.
Now might be a perfect moment to reflect on what are the current critical personal relationships in your life. What are you doing to preserve them? Are any of your relationships under stress? Which are the healthy ones? Which are the ones that could benefit from some nurturing? Take some actions to change or improve things.
If you feel lonely without supportive connections and communities in your life, then try to get out and meet people. Link in with family members, recontact old friends, and get involved in new communities that match your passions and interests. Besides, all members of our Life Amplifier community and myself are here for you and with you. Reach out or leave a comment below if you’d like to share your thoughts, if you have questions, or if you’d like to forge new relationships. Here you’re at the right place!
I’m looking very much forward to receiving your feedback and continuing the discussion based on your comments, etc. If you’re thinking about how best to build strong and healthy relationships as a leader or within your organization, please feel free to contact me or visit my website at https://andreasvonderheydt.com.
Kind regards,
Andreas von der Heydt, @avonderheydt
Book Tip: “Man’s Search for Meaning” – A classic and must-read book.
The book is basically divided into three parts, the first one describes the way the Jews prisoners were treated in the Nazi Concentration Camps. In the second part, the author described the basics of Logotherapy, a way of treatment of the Psychotherapeutic Patients. And finally, in the third part, he described what he actually meant by Man’s Search for meaning. Read it until the end. It’ll be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Promised!
#relationships #meaning #life #success #leader #leadership #coaching #coach #avdh