Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Ingredients to a Healthy Relationship

I read the following ingredients to a healthy relationship by K. Wordbird Bate that I would pass along.


Some Healthy Relationship Ingredients

Trust: I am willing to allow trustworthy others to gain access to who I am.

Respect: I treat others as valuable. I use a respectful tone and words.

Honesty: I don’t keep secrets, or play games with the truth.

Consideration: I stay mindful of the other person’s needs and feelings.

Acceptance: I feel good about who I am. I see others as okay.

Integrity: I know my values, and I maintain them.

Understanding: I communicate so I am understood. I empathize and listen to others.

Boundaries: I can say, “no,” take some space, have some privacy, ask not to be touched, and make my own decisions. I allow this to others.

Self-Awareness: I stay in touch with what I know, need, want and feel.

Communication: I can talk freely about important issues.

Commitment: I am able to work through discomfort and hard times. I can rely on myself to do what I say I am going to do.

Self-Responsibility: I take charge of my own goals and needs. I don’t expect others to fufill me, make choices for me, do what I should be doing, or answer all my needs.

Maturity: I interact, express and react as a grown person. I don’t fall apart, have tantrums, give the silent treatment, abandon others, act in spite, or call people names.

Equality: I’m a sharing, equal partner. Neither Taker nor Giver.

Directness: I can say clearly and warmly what’s going on for me. . I’m not sarcastic or sideways. I don’t manipulate, confuse or maneuver others.

Change: I allow myself to change and grow. I don’t sabotage change in myself or others.

Touch: I am able to give and accept affection and support through touch.

Emotion: I allow myself the full range of emotions, and express respectfully. I allow others their emotional expression, if it’s respectful of me.

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