Ahsan Gardezi
Delivering the latest in style, inspiration, tips and tricks, and everything else you need to know to plan things ahead. Here’s how to manage your relationships while being quarantined for a long time.
Also Read: Avoiding COVID-19 Scams
Relationships with family, friends, work, and especially romantic partners require effort to maintain. Relationships are very important part of our lives, and often give us meaning, purpose, positive emotions, and contribute to an individual’s sense of well-being, self-esteem and security.
Factors to keep in mind:
- Relationships take time to develop.
- Relationships can change over time.
- All couples experience problems.
- How problems and challenges are addressed helps define relationships as either healthy or unhealthy.
- First step towards developing a positive relationship is your willingness to work at it.
Myth: I’m just not hard wired to communicate. My partner will just have to accept me the way that I am.
Fact: Some people are better communicators than others. This does not mean that people who find communication difficult can manage without it. Communication isn’t a skill solely for romantic relationships; it is an essential tool of working relationships and friendships. Expecting that you aren’t capable of change or are not willing to change, reflects on how well your current level of communication is working for you, and also on how you would feel if your partner was not willing to work on enhancing the relationship.
Tips To Maintain A Healthy Relationship
-
- Effective communication
- Mutual respect, trust, honesty, support, fairness, equality, and safety
- Compromise
- Separate identities
- Non-judgmental towards each other
- Affection, emotional expression
- Spend quality time together
- Openness and willingness to learn new relationship skills
People who have a best friend at work are seven times more likely to be engaged in their jobs. And it doesn’t have to be a best friend, you know?
Human beings are naturally social creatures – we crave friendship and positive interactions, just as we do food and water. So, it makes sense that the better our relationships are at work, the happier and more productive we’re going to be.
Good relationships are also often necessary if we hope to develop our careers. After all, if your boss doesn’t trust you, it’s unlikely that he or she will consider you when a new position opens up.
Overall, we all want to work with people we’re on good terms with.
Stress Impact | How To Manage Your Relationships While Being Quarantined For A Long Time
Because this is such a stressful time, we have fewer emotional resources and we tend to be more sensitive and less flexible. We therefore become more easily triggered.
There are several characteristics that make up good, healthy working relationships:
- Trust – This is the foundation of every good relationship. When you trust your team and colleagues, you form a powerful bond that helps you to work and communicate more effectively. If you trust the people you work with, you can be open and honest in your thoughts and actions, and you don’t have to waste time and energy “watching your back.”
- Mutual Respect – When you respect the people who you work with, you value their input and ideas, and they value yours. Working together, you can develop solutions based on your collective insight, wisdom and creativity.
- Mindfulness – This means taking responsibility for your words and actions. Those who are mindful are careful and attend to what they say, and they don’t let their own negative emotions impact the people around them.
- Welcoming Diversity – People with good relationships not only accept diverse people and opinions, but they welcome them. For instance, when your friends and colleagues offer opinions different from yours, you take the time to consider what they have to say, and factor their insights into your decision-making.
- Open Communication – We communicate all day, whether we’re sending emails and IMs, or meeting face to face. The better and more effectively you communicate with those around you, the richer your relationships will be. All good relationships depend on open, honest communication.
Although we should try to build and maintain good working relationships with everyone, there are certain relationships that deserve extra attention. Follow the above bullets to search for such relationships.
It’ll be worth it, we promise you.
COVID-19 | Carving out Uncertainties
Not that it matters, let’s go a little off-topic for a bit.
Couples thrive when there’s a healthy balance between time spent together and time spent apart.
However, due to the COVID-19 lock down, creating separate spaces is now more difficult than ever. Still, it’s important to physically remove yourself from your partner for an hour or two each day. Go into your backyard, your child’s bedroom, your home office—anywhere where you can carve out some alone time.
If you live in a studio or loft where there are no real walls, create zones for each other and retreat to your separate corners. No matter your living situation, the essential ingredient is communicating when you need alone time, as this is likely to be different every day. And when your partner requests a similar break, honor it.
Whisper Of The Heart | Focus On The Short-Term And Develop Plans Together
For many people, anxiety is fed by two main things: fear of the unknown and wanting to control the future. In moments of stress, the mind can spiral into a series of “what ifs,” and then we get swept up in an abyss of unknowns.
When trying to clear the clouds of anxiety, it’s helpful to periodically remind yourself to take things one day at a time while simultaneously creating short-term plans with your partner. Put your heads together and brainstorm ways to take care of the essentials:
- How will you homeschool your kids?
- What’s your take on working from home?
- How will you manage any medical needs?
- What are your plans to tackle necessary runs to the supermarket or pharmacy?
Come up with simple, prudent, feasible plans that fit the directives of your town, city or province.
The COVID-19 situation is evolving, and new developments may require tweaks to these plans, but by getting a handle on the day-to-day stuff, you’ll quell your anxieties while fostering teamwork.
Coming back to the generics now. Dig in!
The Business-End Of Things | How To Manage Your Relationships While Being Quarantined For A Long Time
So, what do we mean by changing what you do?
Seems like a weird thing to say, but try to understand something here.
Review the current situation and ask yourself some relevant questions so you can determine just what is going on.
You should look at the person whom you are talking to or meeting within the context of their history within the company and with you.
- Where do you think they might be coming from?
- In other words, what’s on their agenda?
- Could there be a hidden agenda or a subtext you need to be alert to (there generally is)?
Look at your attitudes and expectations of the other person.
- Are you able to see their point of view?
- Will you sympathize with their difficulties?
- Are you responding to them with what you think they need or what you know they need?
What’s the context? Is this a person who relies on you because they always know you’ll be responsive to their needs?
Since, as a culture, we’re used to seeing what’s wrong, we really are quite proficient at cataloguing our own deficiencies. What if we turned a few of them on their heads?
This period of quarantine is one of the biggest testing periods of our lives right now. During this time, we must initiate solutions as problems arise. In difficult times, it is always best to create a problem-solving environment to make room for some peace.
This article was all about how to manage your relationships while being quarantined for a long time. Basic info and context to each topic was gathered from a range of independent resources. If you have any questions, drop a comment in the section provided below.
Good luck!
