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Home >Blog & News >Community >Why Making Amends Can Help Your Mental Health

Why Making Amends Can Help Your Mental Health

Sometimes holidays can bring out the best in us. And sometimes they can highlight the things we are struggling with, which may be a relationship with a friend, family member, or our partner that we wish were stronger. Social relationships can have a huge impact on our health and wellness. They can reduce stress, improve our overall health, and even increase our chances of survival by 50%.

So how can we work to build a healthier relationship with someone we currently have a strained relationship with? We’ve compiled some helpful tips below:

Focus on the qualities about them you love & respect: If you have had a relationship with this person then there are most likely qualities about them you love and respect. When you are feeling hurt or that your needs aren’t being met, however, it becomes easy to focus solely on the negative, and not the qualities that drew you to them in the first place.

Take Time to Rebuild the Relationship: Making this relationship a priority will take time, and so too will rebuilding trust and respect. The only way to make this relationship better is for you both to work through it together and to devote time to it.

Try to Understand them Better: The only way to get past a painful disagreement is to try to find common ground, or at least a sense of understanding of what made the person do/say what they did that caused the pain. Let them know that you want to understand and that you’re ready to be an active listener.

Learn to Forgive: Forgiveness acknowledges that we all are human. We all make mistakes. It means you are willing to put this pain behind you so you can be open to healing with new experiences where you both do better for each other.

Maintaining healthy relationships is an important part of life. Sometimes, relationships just need some time, attention, and understanding to get back on track once again.