How To Use Mindfulness To Strengthen Your Relationships

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I’m pleased to welcome Elle to The Little Blog Of Positivity to share with us her top tips on using mindfulness to strengthen your relationships. 

These tips really resonated with me, in particular striving to be non-judgemental and also patient in our relationships.  Not always easy, but Elle has some wise advice.

Let us know what resonates with you the most. 

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Over to Elle.

Building relationships has always been a part of life’s sweet privileges.   We strive to keep those people in our lives because, deep inside, we choose to.

It’s not all something that is just handed to us. We still choose to be around the people we love, we cherish, and those that we think we should surround ourselves with even during those times when we may feel otherwise.

Along with creating relationships, we also try to maintain them on a meaningful level—one from which we can learn and grow.

Although sometimes, it can be draining and can develop into an unhealthy environment for both of you, a healthy relationship with your loved ones is important for your wellness.

Mindfulness can be applied to our relationships as much as to our lives.

As it changes our personal lifestyle, it can also encourage us to be better for and to those people around us. Not only for our partners but also for those family and friends that we hold close to us.

Related Post:  Mindfulness Meditation – An Awesome Way To Calm Your Mind

 

Image by Pixistock

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The Importance of Mindfulness in Relationships

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There are so many powerful lessons mindfulness has given us. It’s not quite enough to say that knowing is half the battle. It’s necessary that there is an application of the mindful practices that we know. An application and a sharing of knowledge.

Imagine the strength that we cultivate, not only for our general health and well-being but also for the relationships that we have built through the years around us when we learn to share what we know.

Mindfulness is important because it offers so many positive changes in our life.

Here’s a great article that I read on how mindfulness can create happier relationships. We become more understanding, compassionate, and non-judgmental as a person.

Aside from this, mindfulness can help you build deeper relationships and eventually improve your environment into a healthier one.

This can potentially increase your wellness level in your personal life too. A healthier environment that provides growth and builds new foundations for others as well.

With all this said, I would love to share with you a few practical tips you can do, to help you with your relationships.

Here are some top tips on how to achieve a mindful relationship.

 

1.  Create A Deeper Understanding Of Your Relationship

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Being mindful requires a deeper understanding and connection with your loved ones. Not only will you learn to live with them, as time goes by, you will also cultivate a lot of good traits with your loved ones.

This means that if you want to approach your relationship by being mindful, you have to have that kind of connection.

Being mindful in your relationships means you have to understand your loved ones very well. This part, you can achieve easily if you intend to get to know them well, and in time, I’m sure you will.

If you decide to take a turn and renew your relationship using a mindful approach with your partner or friend, try to do this first.

Have a good contemplation of who your loved one is.

• What do they like and dislike?
• How well do the both of you address the problems that come your way?
• What makes them upset and what makes them happy?

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Those small details can really help you get a clearer and deeper understanding of who they are.

Those observations will be the basis of your awareness of your relationship. Both of your feelings, your emotions, and how you think in certain situations are the things that you first need to be mindful of.

If you’ve established a deeper understanding with your loved one, it helps you identify those things needed to be addressed with mindfulness. Those habits and behaviors that you have to change or improve.

 

Related Post:  The Power Of Meditation: 5 Astonishing Ways It Can Help You

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Photo by Jude Beck on Unsplash

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2.  Don’t Let Your Emotions Get Ahead Of you

 

One of the benefits of this practice is that it decreases our emotional reactivity.

This can be very much helpful when dealing with relationship problems. Both you and your loved one should know that problems can be easily addressed when you try to have open communication with what you feel.

You must talk about your feelings and situations without getting too emotionally involved. This will help you approach situations more objectively and produce actions that could benefit both of you.

Relationship problems are not meant to be buried down. So instead, I suggest that you talk about it in a way where you can understand each others’ sides–mindfully.

Here’s one example:

Sibling arguments are very usual situations in family relationships.

Even if we grow up or grow old we still fight like 15-year-olds with them, possibly because we retain some old traits when around our siblings or our family. Sometimes we’re unconsciously letting down our guards when we interact with them.

I know it’s different because we grew up in that family. Our parents still treat us like kids even if we’re 25, and so, growing up in that kind of environment lets you forget your mature skills when you are with them. This includes how differently we face our problems.

But try and be mindful whenever you and your sibling or your parents fight. Treat them like how you would treat yourself when you are having emotional breakdowns before and how you’ve learned to control it because of mindfulness.

Try and understand where their emotions are coming from and don’t let yours get ahead of you. It’s better to save our energy for things that matter more in our relationships.

 

3.  Be Mindful Of What Your Loved One Feels

 

As part of the deeper understanding of your loved one, you learn to become more aware of what they feel, and when they feel it.

You will notice subtle changes in how you see more clearly now how they respond to your actions, that tells you whenever you’ve upset them. You will eventually develop empathy now that you’ve developed awareness towards them.

Being mindful of their feelings is as important as being mindful of your own. And as to what you do, likewise, you will respond to them with compassion and understanding too.

Now that you are trying to incorporate this practice in your relationship, the phrase, “put yourself in their shoes” will definitely come in handy. This is where you start to care for them and their feelings.

You will learn that mindfulness comes with giving your full intentions and never let yourself do anything that would hurt theirs.

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Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

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4.  Practice Acceptance With Your Loved One

 

With mindfulness, you develop a wider view of acceptance for your relationships. You will learn that acceptance means understanding and acknowledging who they are, and who they are not.

Sometimes, in relationships, mistakes are the ones very hard to accept. It’s difficult when they’ve done something that got you thinking whether you should accept what happened or not.

Acceptance is a mindfulness principle that is very powerful if we know what it truly represents; if we know what it means to accept. It doesn’t mean that you have to be passive or force yourself to accept something you’re not ready for.

Acceptance is acknowledging what both of you feel.

 

Related Post:  7 Different Forms Of Meditation And How To Do Them

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5.  Don’t Judge Your Partner Or Siblings Or Your Loved Ones

 

A non-judgmental approach is best partnered with the previous tips I have mentioned above.

When you’ve become understanding and emotionally responsive rather than reactive in your relationship, and when you are mindful of them, a non-judgmental mind is easier to achieve.

Mindfulness will help you become aware of those automatic judgments that are created by your mind. This serves as a short reminder when you can’t help but be angry because of maybe what they said, or what they did.

Having a non-judgmental trait means that you will not let your mind immediately label a situation as good or bad.  Instead, this provides you some time to think again and reevaluate your thoughts and emotions, labeling them as is– just thoughts and emotions.

If there comes a time when you can’t help but be mad at them, be mad. But don’t let your judgments reflect what you only want to see, sometimes if we let go we see things for what they truly are.

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Image by Pixistock

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6.  Refresh Unhelpful Behaviors

 

Mindfulness can help renew unconscious and unhelpful behaviors that negatively affect your relationships.

This is your time to gradually change yours and shift to healthier habits with your loved ones.

Fruitful relationships are made with great connections and a willingness to grow and adjust for your loved one’s needs.

If you have fully understood how both of you operate in your relationship, then you can help each other address your faults and be open in talking about them.

The more that we know about our shortcomings, the better we can be as a partner, or a friend to everyone in our lives.

 

7.  Have Patience

 

I know it’s quite a challenge for some to have a lot of patience, especially when dealing with someone close to us. We know those people who can really get on our nerves and those who are not.

Aside from acceptance, patience is also a key concept of mindfulness that we can use to build stronger relationships.

Be patient with your loved ones. Relationships are always about giving each other time and space to grow and learn. It’s essential to know that all good things take time.

When you suffer from loss, grief, or depression with your loved one, it’s crucial that you give each other’s support and patience.

It’s a strong virtue that holds the whole relationship together. One must not forget to be patient with oneself and with others.

 

8.  Be Present With Your Loved Ones

 

Above all else, cherish each moment with them. Remember the days when you smiled and figured you were happy at that moment. This increases your overall well-being greatly.

Savor your relationships’ meaningful moments and reflect on those difficult ones.

When you bond with them, stay present with them. It doesn’t help thinking about other things– or worse thinking about your problems together– when something good is currently happening.

Let go and be there with them. Each moment is happening right there in front of your eyes as you are with them. Be grateful for that.

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Image by Pixistock

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8.  Embrace Each Adventure With A Beginner’s Mind

 

A beginner’s mind is definitely helpful for relationships that are going on for such a long time. Romantic relationships, as well as other types of relationships, sometimes need some new tricks to keep the fire burning.

A beginner’s mind is simply a fresh mind you have to apply as you try new things with your loved ones. This will help your relationships maintain that excitement and open every moment with them fresh like a beginner’s experience.

This will also help renew your dull routines and start with new ones that could possibly strengthen your relationship with them.

Embracing each moment with an open mind and letting go of expectations is one way to practice a beginner’s mind.

You can do this in your day to day moments with them.

If you feel like you’ve been doing everything the way you planned, it can feel as if you’re losing control or doing things automatically. Break free from those habits and start building new ones every day.

It’s okay if not everything that you do is planned. Have days with random activities and enjoy those with them.

Mindfulness is not only for improving ourselves but it can also manifest in how we treat those people around us; how we cultivate relationships that are also beneficial for our overall wellness.

It’s important that we know this practice helps and that we can encourage other people to practice it too.

I hope this post has been helpful for you in any way possible.

 

About The Author

 

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Elle is a Filipina student blogger who’s dedicated to finding happiness, and achieving well-being, in her life.

She practices and blogs about mindfulness, self-development, and life teachings in general.

Her website, Unpopular Opinions, is a safe space for individuals to share, relate, and navigate through their thoughts and feelings.

Unpopular Opinions is somewhere focused on the in-betweens, the road less traveled, the unnoticeable, and the unspeakable truths about the wonderful things in the world relating to life, happiness, spirituality, and many more.

Website: Unpopular Opinions

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