Close bonds

Renee Singh

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At the ultimate level we do need to realise that our first and foremost relationship is with our family. It is our most important relationship. The kind of emotional and social support we get from them is unmatchable. Many times we have realised that these relationships are toxic and instead of being a support they actually become a reason for a lot of stress in our lives.

Family is our pillar of strength and is normally a factor we start relying upon from our childhood. Frankly, it is dysfunctional families that are responsible for the main cause of stress in our lives.

Unconditional love

In most families where there is a good bond between the family members. There is a concept of unconditional love. This is only possible within the family as the human mind from childhood is conditioned to believe that we must love each other as a family despite our inherent differences. In a way this is a good and positive thing as it helps us to remain positively grounded.

Support in times of need

This is where the family truly chips in as a true stress reliever. Sometimes we are going through extremely tough situations and family chips in to provide the emotional anchor which helps us to sail through the difficult time in a best possible manner.

Healthy communication

Relationships are the most delicate things and can be a source of extreme stress in most cases. Healthy relationships between family members can be  a very powerful source of stress relieving.

Childhood reflections

When families get together they often sit and reminiscence about their childhood and growing up years. Sometimes this gets stressful as you rake up old patterns from childhood and many of them are unpleasant. But sometimes we only talk of our beautiful times and these bring us closer on a present moment scale.

Sibling rivalry

No matter how old we become we always have this child presence very strong within us. We are adults yet we are just overgrown kids within the family. Clearing the air within is extremely important to have healthy and happy relationships.

Be assertive

The best way to develop a healthy communication to de-stress is to be using assertiveness as a skill. Assert your rights in a non timid but non aggressive fashion. Show respect for yourself as well as for the other person This is a healthy way of de-stressing  as well as creating healthy boundaries for yourself and others.

Respect each other’s rights

By changing aggressive patterns we give others the feeling that we are respecting them. This changes the feeling from an aggressive one to a simply firm and assertive communication. This works very well in keeping the relationship going as it does not create any hostility.

 (Singh is a Chandigarh-based psychotherapist)