Thinking about future brings positivity to your relation

Are you going through a hard time in your relationship? A recent study suggests that thinking about the future might help you to maintain a healthy relationship as it helps to overcome conflicts and bring positivity.

“When romantic partners argue over things like finances, jealousy, or other issues, they tend to employ their current feelings as fuel for a heated argument. By envisioning their relationship in the future, people can shift the focus away from their current feelings and mitigate conflicts,” said Alex Huynh, researcher, University of Waterloo, Canana, in the study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science.

Previous research suggested that people are able to reason more wisely over issues of infidelity when they are asked to do so from a third person perspective.

The new study reveals similar benefits in reasoning can be induced by simply stepping back and thinking about the future.

When participants of this research extended their thinking about the relationship a year into the future, they were able to show more forgiveness and reinterpret the event in a more reasoned light.

“Our study demonstrates that adopting a futureoriented perspective in the context of a relationship conflict— reflecting on how one might feel a year from now— may be a valuable coping tool for one’s psychological happiness and relationship well being,” he added.

The research has potential implications for understanding how prospection, or futurethinking, can be a beneficial strategy for a variety of conflicts people experience in their everyday lives.

PHOTO: ISTOCK