MEN'S HEALTH
Rx for A Healthy Relationship (Relax, It’s Not Complicated)
Maintaining healthy relationships is important not just for our mental and spiritual health, but also for our physical health.
WRITTEN BY: BEN HANSON
Now that Valentine's Day has come and gone, we thought it'd be a good time to talk about relationships. Sure, you might be wondering why such valuable advice wasn't doled out prior to the "most romantic day of the year," and that's an entirely fair question. Well, guess what? The ol' editorial calendar can be as perplexing a game as love, so maybe just be happy with what you get when you get it. Get it? The truth is it doesn't much matter what time of year it is. All of us — men and women — could stand to spend a bit more time thinking, contemplating and acting on the things that make our relationships thrive, all the while trying to dodge and weave the inevitable challenges that inevitably spring up… often with little notice (although, if you never see it coming, the odds of "it" being your fault are embarrassingly high). Maintaining healthy relationships is important not just for our mental and spiritual health, but also for our physical health. If you're suffering in a bad relationship, you're quite literally suffering, and that suffering can manifest itself in a variety of ways: stress, unhealthy eating and drinking 12 / THE GOOD LIFE / urbantoadmedia.com
habits, increased risk for serious health conditions like high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even heart disease. The relative health of your romantic relationship in many ways can be an insightful window into your overall health and well-being. Now's probably a good time to clearly state that I am not a relationship expert, and this piece is in no way intended to replace a good hour or two on a therapist's couch. In fact, that bit about avoiding challenges… though it sounds right… couldn't be more wrong. Let's bring in the doc to help explain why.
Communication Above All Else "Mastering communication is huge. It's probably the single most important indicator of a healthy relationship," says Dr. Forrest Sauer, founder of Twin Oaks Health Solutions in Fargo. "If you're in the habit of avoiding conflict, burying your feelings and not addressing the problem as soon as it becomes apparent, you're relationship is going to suffer and never reach its full potential. It's hard to master communication because it requires so much vulnerability,
