Not only do your heart, soul, dreams, and wishes enter your relationships, but so do your worst fears and any leftover emotional baggage you might carry. If you've ever had to lift heavy boxes or bags up a flight of stairs, you know how burdensome it can be. It can tire your legs and give you a backache, making you irritable, sometimes days later. Living with emotional baggage is just as burdensome and can cause relationships to become toxic or, at the very least, incompatible. Unhealthy relationships cause stress that manifests in physical discomfort, illnesses, and disease.

Relationships are like plants, which need good soil, water, sunshine, and a little fertilizer (healthy cornerstones) to help them grow. Here, you'll discover what a healthy relationship entails, relationship red flags, the meaning of narcissism, and steps to take in leaving an abusive relationship.

The Cornerstones of a Healthy Relationship

• Unconditional love
• Understanding & Intimacy
• The ability to Share Simple Pleasures
• Friendship

Unconditional Love

Most people would prefer to go longer without water than without unconditional love. If love or joy goes missing from your life for a prolonged period, your energy levels will suffer, and you will be more prone to disease. All people need unconditional love, but it's not just the love from others that's necessary, although that is an essential factor. Self-love has to exist, as well. When you love yourself, wellness follows. When you love yourself, you can allow others to love you too. Love isn't just something you feel. No. Love is an action. It's something you do. You experience love through your senses. Being held back from being able to love through your senses, whether it's someone else holding you back or you, is abusive.

Understanding & Intimacy

Understanding and intimacy are vital factors in developing healthy relationships and keeping them that way. Intimacy isn't sex, although it can be an expression of it. Intimacy is the ability to be close, be yourself, and feel safe in that closeness as you reveal yourself to another. You cannot have intimacy without kindness, and kindness takes understanding. Acts of understanding and kindness allow your body to remain relaxed (without tension) and emotions content enough to be intimate (close).

The Ability to Share Simple Pleasures

You can't truly live or feel alive without using your senses. Enjoying the simple things in life, a golden sunset, a puppy bounding clumsily across the grass, or cuddling beside a loved one during a movie lifts your spirits and can fill you with love and joy. Why? Because you are getting the chance to react to your senses in a positive way that promotes wellness. Healthy relationships are one of the cornerstones of emotional and physical health, and sharing simple pleasures benefits your overall health.

Friendship

Friendship results from sharing unconditional love, understanding, intimacy (as in sharing your fears and feeling safe doing so), and the ability to share simple pleasures. Most of us value being in a love relationship, which is wonderful and healthy. However, we may attract the wrong people if we are soft-hearted and require peace (often an underlying need to feel secure). If your relationship isn't built on healthy cornerstones, it can become a significant cause of stress, leading to symptoms and conditions.