7 Tips for Improving Your Relationships

by Patricia Wagner

Want a way to improve the quality of your life? If so, there's life-changing information in this article.

Although most people concentrate on trying to get ahead financially as the way to what they perceive is happiness, having lots of stuff does not really satisfy. Consider how you'll feel when you come to the end of your life. Will you wish for more money then, or will you want to be surrounded by loving family members and friends?

The book of Proverbs teaches this crucial truth: "A man that has friends must show himself friendly" (Proverbs 18:24). But if you're too busy, how will you make lasting friendships?

Your circle of family and friends is like a lovely garden you need to cultivate and water.

Here are 7 keys that will help your relationships to bloom:

1. Take time to cultivate your relationships with friends and loved ones.

Be sure to make room for the important people in your life in your schedule. Plan to spend time with your friends and loved ones. If you forget to put them in your schedule, you'll concentrate on other matters that are time-consuming but that won't matter that much at the end of your life.

Relationships can dry up and blow away just like plants in a garden that don't get enough water.

This is one of the main reasons that many marriages fail. Marriage partners are often so busy that the marriage withers away from neglect.

If you want your relationships to bloom, you have to water them with quality time. How long would a rose garden be lush and beautiful if no one watered it for days without end?

2. Tell your family and friends how much you appreciate them.

Dwell on their good qualities instead of on their faults.

3. Practice the art of asking for forgiveness when you've been wrong.

And don't think you're always right. That isn't humanly possible. Swallow your pride and simply say, I was wrong. Please forgive me. Although this can be humbling, humility is a beautiful quality to have. Thinking you're always right is a poisonous weed that will strangle your relationships.

4. When someone else has done wrong to you, be quick to forgive.

Holding grudges won't help you. Unforgiveness acts like aggressive weeds that choke the life from your relationships garden. Being harsh and unforgiving crushes tender relationship plants.

5. Get in the habit of saying "thank you" a lot.

We all like to be appreciated and not taken for granted.
As a result of saying "thank you" a lot, you may be surprised by the vibrant blossoms of encouragement that can bloom in your relationship garden.

6. Spend more time listening than talking.

Conversations are like tennis games. The ball is served from one side to the other on an alternating basis. Wouldn't you think it was rather strange if one of the players just kept hitting the ball straight up into the air over and over again instead of hitting the ball back to the other player?

Think of the person you are talking to and don't monopolize the conversation. Some people have this annoying habit. Check to see if you like to do this and then stop it if you do.

7. Try to keep your eye out for opportunities to help other people.

Visit that friend in the hospital. Take groceries to a needy neighbor. Call family members on a regular basis.

If you pay attention to the health of your relationships, your own sense of well-being will increase. You will probably enjoy more energy too since relationships are very important to our overall health. Broken relationships can be very destructive both physically and emotionally.

Why not check out how you're doing in cultivating the relationships with the important people in your life?

Let your relationship garden of friends and loved ones flourish.