After all, emotional security is sought by many of us and although every couple has their respective differences and issues, having a partner can actually boost our physical and psychological well-being.
There are numerous benefits to being in a healthy, emotionally supportive relationship. I’m not sure being in a relationship, in general, can be classified as a good thing or as having benefits. Some relationships actually compound stress, limit personal growth and contribute to health issues.
There is research that shows that the negative benefits of having no social ties are equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day. So, the extreme reality of being completely isolated is detrimental.
Research that shows the benefits of being in a relationship is usually qualified with “emotionally supportive” or “close” or “healthy.” All the research I will refer to has these qualifications to it – which points to the reality that not all relationships have positive benefits.
They are proactive in staying healthy, seek help faster, and recover faster. People in healthy relationships experience less stress and are more likely to achieve their personal goals. People in healthy marriages create meaning together and meaning is shown to contribute to overall well-being and what researchers coin “the good life.“
Research around the concept of meaning shows that central to our human longing for meaning is a desire for connectedness. Being in a loving relationship fulfills this desire for connectedness and gives us meaning: we know that we matter to someone else and that we have a place in the world.
I believe one of the key benefits of being in a relationship is that it can help you grow more into your own power and your own truth.
When I am single, it can be really easy to say who and what I am. A partner pushes me to put my beliefs into action. It’s one thing to say that I can love unconditionally; in a relationship, I get the opportunity to try that with another human. I get to fall short of my goal, learn from it, and try again.
I also think that our partners show us other parts of ourselves that we may want to heal/shift that we may not have even noticed.
For instance, if there is something that drives me crazy about my partner, it can mean that I have the same or similar quality/action and I have not realized it’s something I don’t like about myself.