Are You Wondering, What Do Healthy Relationships Look Like?

We don’t see them that often because they are pretty rare.  Researchers tell us that only 10% of the marriages in the US are super healthy and happy.  But the great news is that  you can learn what healthy relationships are like and create one for yourself! Even if you have had lots of challenges in the love department.  So what do healthy relationships look like is a key question to ask. And this is so, whether you are single, dating a person who could be the One, or involved in a committed relationship that has been unfulfilling for a while.  Let’s take a peek at what one of these happy couples that I know:

Sue is an angel of a woman with a mass of super curly hair and a few extra pounds.  She is sitting on her husband, Ralph’s lap, laughing and whispering in his ear.  Ralph, a lanky tall salesman is guffawing at Sue’s whispered jokes as he tells her she is a brilliant Lucille Ball.  He gently pushes a wisp of hair from her forehead and plants a kiss on her.  Sue beams at him and says “Thanks!” The couple are in their own world, even though they are at a party with 25 people.

A young woman approaches the couple and asked if they just got married.  Sue and Ralph laugh heartily and say “yes”  even though the answer is obviously no.  They have been married for 12 years.  But they are still madly in love.  They have shared intimacy and humor, strong appreciation for each other and ongoing affection.  And their exchanges are in a ratio of at least 5 to 1 positive to negative.   Sue and Ralph are a healthy happy couple.   But don’t despair. They are not the only ones.

What’s Your Relationship Goal?

If your goal is being in a happy, committed lasting love relationship, the first step is to understand and clearly visualize your vision if you hope to be successful. Which means you have to know the answer to the question: what do healthy relationships look like? If you don’t, you’ll just stumble around, facing heartbreak after heartbreak, feeling alone and lonely. Unfortunately, a soul mate does not just come to you as a perfectly fitting puzzle piece or twin personality. A soul mate is a person who develops and maintains a state of living love in word and in action with you.

Chances are you have had few role models of a win-win relationship; the kind of true love that makes you healthier, happier, and wealthier. It may be hard to envision this kind of relationship for yourself and challenging to learn the skills that happy couples routinely use. Until now!  In this post we look at one of eight key habits that research studies have discovered that answer the question: What do healthy relationships look like?  Specifically, we’ll examine how couples in healthy relationships practice gratitude and appreciation.

What Do Healthy Relationships Look Like? They Practice Gratitude

He who is in love is wise and becoming wiser, sees every time he looks at the object beloved, drawing from it with his eyes and his mind those virtues which it possesses.—Ralph Waldo Emerson

Because they know that loss can occur, loving and happy couples appreciate and are grateful for each other. Each partner appreciates who the Beloved is, who he or she can be—that is, the Beloved’s Diamond Self—and what is received from the Beloved. Both live in a state of gratitude. This habit leads to great personal and shared happiness in the couple.

In happy couples, the partners tend to see each other’s positive qualities rather than their negative ones. Everyone has flaws; there is no perfect person. In the practice of this habit of loving, the partner’s flaws are not the focus. Instead of grimacing about her husband’s flabby paunch and being grumpy about his snoring, a happy wife sees a sandy-haired hunk getting into her bed. Instead of zoning in on his wife’s cellulite and complaining about her failed MLM business, a happy husband sees a warm, funny vixen who lights up his life.

Positive Paranoia and Gratitude

Here’s a surprising answer to the question, what do healthy relationships look like. Healthy, happy couples live most of the time in a state of Positive Paranoia. What’s that? They give their partners the benefit of the doubt when they do something that is disappointing or hurtful. They often see good or simply uninformed intentions underlying what their partners do or say instead of mean-spirited criticism, rejection, or attack. In contrast, in unhappy couples, the partners can never win. Even when one spouse tries to be nice, he or she is greeted with negative paranoia; the other spouse is suspicious about underlying intentions and thinks that the loving act is simply a setup to be disappointed and hurt once again. This makes it hard and, at the very end, almost impossible to simply take in a love gesture. There are few such barriers for happy couples.

Happy couples focus on the blessings in their lives and regularly express gratitude. As you now know, research clearly shows that appreciation and gratitude lead to happiness. Daily counting of one’s blessings leads to less depression and a more elevated mood. For example, a “gratitude visit,” is where you write a letter of thanks to a person who has helped you and then go to them and read it. Members of a healthy couple are continuously making gratitude mini-visits to each other in verbal or written form. They express thanks, give each other appreciative, gratitude-based gifts, and exchange loving e-mails, notes, and cards.

What Do Healthy Relationships Look Like? They Show Appreciation

If you’re wondering, what do healthy relationships look like, then research has an answer for you.  Showing Appreciation is critically important in the lives of happy couples. When you are in a state of appreciation and therefore happier in general, it is a lot easier to make your partner happy. Conversely, when you are depressed, worried, or busy counting your misfortunes, it is next to impossible to create happiness and serenity in your relationship.

This Living Love Habit also lays the foundation for having fun together, another important characteristic of healthy relationships.

In the everyday practice of appreciation in a happy couple, the partners do not focus on flaws but instead highly value each other’s strengths.

Happy couples that live in a state of appreciation for each other give their partners the benefit of the doubt when they do something that is disappointing or hurtful. Instead of mean-spirited criticism, rejection, or attack, they often see good or simply uninformed intentions underlying what their partners do or say.

In unhappy couples, the partners can never win. Even when one spouse tries to be nice, the other spouse may be suspicious about underlying intentions. For example, they think that the loving act is simply a setup. There’s mistrust. They believe that disappointment and hurt will inevitably follow once again. This suspicion, makes it hard and, in the end, almost impossible to simply take in a gesture of love. There are few such barriers for healthy and happy couples.

What Do Healthy Relationships Look Like? How They Handle Not Being Appreciated

I know, I know, YOU need appreciation. Your partner might act clueless, mean, distant, or like an a-hole right now. You may feel resentful, rejected, lonely, disappointed, abandoned, or empty. You are TOTALLY RIGHT in feeling upset. I have definitely been there many times myself. So when you go in to find something to appreciate about your partner it may be very difficult to see anything that is positive right now.

Here’s what: For your own sake I want you to set it aside for just a few minutes each day for this week. Let your resentment and upset go for a moment. Do this as a gift to yourself first and foremost.

Being self-righteous and angry is like pouring poison into your brain. You are the one who is suffering. Not your partner. So take a break from “being right” so that YOU can be happy. Just a few times a day, say to yourself, honey, I so appreciate you. Create moments of appreciation where you list some of your most wonderful characteristics. Start living in appreciation of who you are and the rest will follow.

But if you’re having a lot of trouble overcoming your resentments in relation to a difficult partner, please talk to one of my relationship coaches. Even one free strategy session can make a difference.

What Do Healthy Relationships Look Like? Practice These Skills

•   Make it a point to notice and appreciate all the wonderful qualities, large and small, that your partner has. Practice telling them about it. Notice how they respond.

•   Be truly appreciative of your partner. Be sure to thank him/her for outings, gifts, or helpfulness.

•   Polish up your Positive Paranoia skills. When your partner ignores you, think thoughts like, I bet my partner is proud of my music gig even though she hasn’t called. Or My partner wants to help me succeed, even though he’s critical. See how that changes your relationship with these more difficult people. You can tip the scales to the plus side and reap more positives from them by changing the focus of your own outlook. And for a more in depth discussion along with many references on what do healthy relationships look like, pick up a copy of Love in 90 Days.