Relationships

Introduction to relationships

It’s widely accepted that humans are sociable creatures: we develop relationships because that is what we are programmed to do.

Yet if we were an alien watching Earth TV, we might be confused by viewing the rosy, harmonious relationships portrayed during the advertisement breaks only to see a world of conflict, wars and misery on news reports.

Relationships can be the most amazingly wonderful thing, but they can also be a nightmare – and all things in between. And while it may be an obvious thing to say, isn’t just about everything we do based around relationships in some way or other – whether it’s with another person, ourselves, an object, or a location? Aren’t relationships the source of 99.9% of all our happiness and 99.9% of all our distress?

This being the case, what a worthwhile pursuit to explore and understand our relationships.

In this segment, we’ll examine what makes for good and bad relationships, asking questions about our own ties; looking at how past relationships affect present ones; dipping into love and what happens when we don’t get it, and seeing how we can improve our connections, as well as working out how we can enhance our well-being by viewing our relationships through different lenses.

Just to be clear: when we use the word ‘relationship’ we are talking about having a connection to something/someone.

We cannot be ourselves without other people – others help to define who we are by the very fact that they’re around us. We depend on other people to bring us up when we are small, to keep us safe and provide us with things.

There’s also a wealth of evidence showing the importance of good bonds with our parents/carers at an early age, and how we will struggle to reach out to other people in later life without that foundation.