Man is a social animal; interaction with others is of utmost importance to make life worth living. The survival of humankind is not possible without interaction. Those who have good relations with others live contented life while others keep on cursing people, circumstances, and so on.
One has to build satisfactory ties in life. Instead, we can say that the quality of one’s life is reflected through one’s relationships with his/her parents, spouse, siblings, teachers, friends, neighbours, colleagues.
These days due to the lockdown period, we are locked inside our houses. Under such circumstances, if the association with family members is not decent, then one feels frustration inside the four walls of the house. On the other side, those having good family relations, of course, enjoy this time with family.
Having a healthy relationship demands mutual efforts on both sides. Single-sided efforts can never bring beauty to the relation. The intimacy of the connection depends upon devotion and concern about the others. Loyalty and sincerity are essential ingredients for nourishing life with healthy relationships.
In this modern era, the life has become fast; strive for excellence and success has conceited the personal as well as social life, there is hardly any sphere of life, which has remained untouched by its influence.
Conflicts, lack of affection, inferiority or superiority complexes, dissatisfaction, anger, anxiety are common disturbing issues of today’s life. The question arises, is this development called to?
There is no one reason behind the unpleasantness or dissatisfaction in lives. It is the consequence of factors that depreciate the quality of life.
Cause of discontentment
- Life has become an endless race for achievement and money. Everyone is hankering after material possessions, neglecting the charms of quality life. Busy life avoids a person to pay attention to himself and towards others. Today’s man has forgotten to enjoy the realms of natural beauty. Eventually, it results in a solitary life, sometimes produces irritation, resentment, frustration in the relations. It is not wrong to be engaged in work. Nevertheless, specific quality time needs to be spent with dear ones and persons you are associated with. After all, life is to lead.
- No doubt, social networking has brought the people closer. On the flip side, it has diminished the quality of relations to some extent. We share minute details of life on social media sites and left with no words on meeting someone face to face.
- Inferiority or superiority complexes are self-created ideas about oneself and others. These are preventing forces that impede the diffusion of thoughts. These sorts of feelings should be eradicated at the sprouting stage so that complications at the later stage can be avoided. These complexes can be of appearance, colour, performance, achievement, intelligence. It is essential to identify such emotions and snub at the earliest to avoid resulting complications.
- Putting others down is the cause of clash of thoughts, misunderstandings and stagnation in relations. It is a hidden ego that a man strives to satisfy and aims at keeping the upper hand every moment. The dominant person values the issues than a person. Dominance is seldom appreciated. This creates repulsion from the person.
- Sometimes, we fail to understand the circumstances of others and prejudice about others. Lack of vision about the situation of others is a cause of disturbances in the relations. If you don’t know where you want to end up, you will be distracted along the way and could easily be knocked off course. Vision helps you stay connected with where you want to drive yourself in the future.
Some things to consider
- The flow of life never remains stable. There are odds and even in every relation. Every relation goes through highs and lows with time. Do not feel regretful or feel dejected. This is just a course of time. It happens in every relationship everywhere. Just have a self-dialogue with yourself; it will enable you to clean the fog. Think, where did you lack? What have you done? Moreover, what else could you do? Through self-analysis, you will surely come up with new ideas or strategies to build a strong relationship and remove the deficiencies of the existing situation. It will also unveil the specific issues of your life and widen your knowledge sphere about yourself.
- A single man cannot run society and individualism is nowhere welcomed. Try to work together; it enhances the quality and quantity of work. You will hone the skill of adjusting with others. Developing ‘we’, feeling is a real motive that warms the relations and reduces the insecurities of losing. This helps in creating a positive atmosphere at home, workplace, and an organisation.
- There is a small child in everyone who should be allowed to make mischief, play pranks, so try to stay in a jolly mood. This helps in creating a light atmosphere and energy and cultivating these types of habits helps in filling life with freshness and prevents staleness.
- The baggage of office load and family matters should be kept apart. It is foremost important to stay professional and private life at the extreme ends. Being worried about office work, colleagues, assignments, projects, at home is a limiting factor which influences the personal and family life adversely.
- Be empathetic as it is the building block of all healthy relationships. Empathy is to put yourself into other shoes. It is to feel about other circumstances and emotions. More empathic you are, stronger bonds of a relationship can be made. Try to understand why others are behaving differently at some point in time. For example, if a person always keeps shouting loudly, it may be one’s nature, but the person might not be having any negative attitude for you. It is wise to accept and appreciate the individuality of a person and move along with a clear heart.
Final thoughts
Be happy and spread positivity around you, even during tough times. Unlock yourself during the lockdown. It is a waste of time to wait for the pleasurable moments, find pleasure in everything you do, make everything enjoyable, be positive; it will add colours to your life.
Parmveer Singh is an Assistant Professor of Extension Education at Khalsa College Amritsar in India. You can connect with him on Twitter @Parmsingh92.
Ritu Mittal, PhD is an assistant professor at Punjab Agricultural University. Her expertise lies within organisational communication and capacity building.
