‘Love and Relationships: The mental health benefit’
RAIN, rain and more rain! After almost a whole week of consistent showers throughout the whole of the country (and the region), one may have feared we may have been on the cusp of a disaster of biblical proportions, thankfully that was only mildly the case. On the bright side, the gloom and disappointment that was beginning to show on the ‘faces’of the hardworking citizens who work the fields for a living and livelihood quickly turned into joy as hope for their investment was restored. Also, and quite importantly, we spare heart and thought for the casualties, fatalities and all those adversely affected as a consequence, we hope your recoveries are swift and normalcy to your lives is swiftly reinstalled.
Moving along, since we are well and truly into the ‘month of love’, it only feels right we give some attention to the subject of love and potentially how beautiful it could be under a stable set of conditions. Relationships and love, in particular, are often overlooked as contributors to our mental health and quite often are looked at as an ‘independent’ engagement instead of as our innate urge for love and belonging.
Well, being in a healthy emotional relationship with someone or should I say ‘being in love’, is normally what gratifies that innate need we have; to feel like we mean something to someone, to be made to feel like our emotional needs are attended to as well as met; that goes a long way in completing the mental picture that we have of ourselves in relation to other people significant to us or not.
Civilisation
As civilisation has advanced, our forms of interactions with one another have grown multiple facets which has meant that overtime, the definition of love, the procession of relationships as well as our individual interpretations of what constitutes a healthy emotional relationship. This has gradually shifted our perceptions and expectations of relationships that usually lures us into almost a ‘pseudo-emotional reality’ whenever we find ourselves either in or faced with the possibility of being in one.
In as much as there are differences in different relationships based on a number of factors, it is common knowledge that there are certain positive characteristics of an emotionally healthy and positively rewarding relationship and it is from the presence of those, that both individuals can piece together fragments that contribute positively to their mental health.
Most times we small-talk casually joke about how physically ‘glowing’ someone in a new or lengthy relationship is and how well they are being treated by their other, but it is the psychoemotional benefits attached to a warm, engaging emotional exchange that deserve mentioning. Besides, having that responsive ‘emotional backboard’ that listens and attends to a variety of your discomforts, gives you that reassurance of your looks, abilities and potential, and also provides you with the consistent boosts for your self-esteem and self-perception.
The gifts and outings are a bonus in the grand scheme of things essentially, since one should seek more than just that when in the pursuit of a quality emotional relationship. As much as there is truth in the fact that we pursue what we desire in terms of relationships, it is equally significant that, however, or whatever you do choose to pursue, may it at least provide some reassurance, emotional wellbeing and psycho emotionally rewarding. Also, we need to make it a habit to show our love and emotional presence to those that have significant meaning to us each and everyday as this does well in assuring their places in our socioemotional lives. Send comments to runsford0505@gmail.com.