Characteristics of a Healthy Relationship

Other posts related:

Building a Healthy Relationship
Stages of a Healthy Relationship
Signs of a Healthy Relationship

Characteristics of a Healthy Relationship

You might think that the characteristics of a healthy relationship are the same as the signs of a healthy relationship. Yet this is not the case. The characteristics of a relationship that is healthy are often not so obvious to the observer, and therefore could not be called ‘signs’.

If you are in a relationship, you will be able to see which characteristics it has and so find out whether it is healthy or not. Several characteristics of a healthy relationship will be mentioned here. Of course there are many more; some obvious, some subtler and less obvious.

I will start with what I feel is the most wonderful characteristic of a healthy relationship: You have a partner who makes you feel at home; a partner with whom you could live anywhere in the world and still feel at home. Why? Because your partner is your home! It shows that you feel you are in the right relationship. This is the clearest characteristic of a healthy relationship.

After this, every characteristic sounds less important, yet to have a healthy relationship and maintain it the following characteristics are very important.

More Characteristics of a Healthy Relationship

Respecting Your Partner:

In a healthy relationship the partners really respect each other. There are various ways of showing this respect. But respect must be there all the time. One must always give one’s partner the feeling that he/she is a very worthy human being.

So one of the characteristics of a healthy relationship is showing respect to your partner Unfortunately, in every marriage at some point, this becomes an important thing to work on as partners start to take each other for granted and the respect fades.

In a healthy relationship the partner will really listen when the other partner speaks. They will also listen if things are being said that they are not really interested in. Because in a healthy relationship they will know that there may be things that are interesting for the other even if not to themselves.


Listening to Your Partner:

Another clear characteristic of a healthy relationship is that the importance of listening is accepted and acknowledged. Then one either feels so much love that one understands the importance of what is being said, or one feels free to tell the partner that this is not really interesting and that she/he would rather do or talk about something else. But what is crucial is that the partner does listen, which makes it a characteristic of the healthy relationship. If you are in a relationship, and listening is not one of your skills, then take my advice: work on it! It is going to make all the difference.

Taking Time for Each Other:

When I think of all the characteristics I am aware of for a healthy relationship the one that is most striking for me is consciously taking time for each other.

When both partners are always busy whether with job, household or otherwise, it is easy to end up living separate parallel lives. But what’s the point in living together in a relationship, if the relationship is not really enjoyed? When one really consciously takes time for each other and with each other one is constantly building a strong, healthy relationship.

So as the third characteristic of a healthy relationship I would like to emphasize is to take time for and with each other. There are so many beautiful moments one can share together and it strengthens the feeling of “we” and of “belonging”, feelings that create security.

Do Some Of The Characteristics Of A Healthy Relationship Also Apply To A Healthy Sexual Relationship?

There definitely are characteristics that apply to a healthy sexual relationship in particular that have to do with our former theme of listening, but now in a different way.

When a couple that has a loving relationship want to make love, the listening takes on a finer quality. The partner learns to listen for signs from the other’s body like, for example, a change in the breathing. They then know what to do or what to change in what they are doing.

Also when the slightest moan is uttered, it is important to know whether it is a moan of pleasure, or a moan of pain. The characteristic of a healthy sexual relationship is that, if the partner hears this and does not know how to interpret it, she/he will feel totally free to ask the other what is happening, who then will give an honest answer.

The Importance of Asking a Question

The healthy relationship carries the characteristic that the partner actually will ask when he/she has doubts about any sign. And this is important. It is even more important than the answering, as this, in a healthy relationship, is the consequence of the question in the first place. I am sure that most of you have found out that a healthy relationship means also a healthy sexual relationship. If you happen to be a person who has difficulties with this, you can go to my pages on advice for men and women in a sexual relationship.

More posts that may be of help:

How to Improve Your Relationship
Love and Trust
Sexual Relationship Advice
Communication in Relationship

The day-to-day characteristic of a healthy relationship

The day-to-day characteristic of a healthy relationship is this feeling when one wakes up in the morning and one looks at the pillow next to one where one sees the head of the beloved partner resting and one thinks: “ how wonderful to wake up with this person every day. How lucky I am to have found the right person to wake up with.”
And this leads us directly into the next day-to-day characteristic of a healthy relationship: when then our partner wakes up we actually tell her/him. This makes our partner feel happy, and the next characteristic of a healthy relationship is that we really, really want our partner to be happy. And this is probably the most important one that hopefully is or at least becomes a day-to-day characteristic of a healthy relationship.