Human connection has the power to enrich your life in ways nothing else can.
Successful work relationships support your career growth and motivate you to finish tasks on the job. And in all parts of your life, friendship gives you a sense of belonging, combats loneliness, and provides emotional support.
Anytime you meet someone new, you’re starting a relationship. That person could be a passing acquaintance or your next best friend.
Understanding the importance of these social connections and how to maintain them is the key to creating meaningful interpersonal relationships that follow you through life’s ups and downs.
What are interpersonal relationships?
Interpersonal relationships are the emotional bonds you create with the people around you. This refers to both your close relationships with family, friends, or romantic partners and your more surface-level interactions with acquaintances and coworkers.
Any time you interact with someone, you’re creating an interpersonal relationship, whether it lasts for a few minutes or your whole life. Everyone has different personality traits, so no relationship is the same. And personal connections ebb and flow based on individual needs and levels of commitment.
Maybe you don’t talk to a childhood best friend anymore because of distance, or you’re close with a work colleague because you’ve bonded over a shared experience. This is a natural part of the relationship lifecycle.
The importance of interpersonal relationships
The need for interpersonal relationships is so crucial to emotional well-being that evolution hardwired it into the human brain. Early humans formed bonds with others in their communities to help them find food, shelter, and physical and social protection.
In modern times, it might not seem like these social connections serve the same purpose. After all, you can buy food at a supermarket, and human-made structures give you shelter wherever you go. But the importance of interpersonal relationships still stands, even today.
Humans are fundamentally social creatures. They rely on cooperation not only to survive, but to live emotionally rich, fulfilling lives. And without human connection, you might start to feel lonely, which can negatively affect your sleep hygiene and mental health. Consistent loneliness could also lead to social isolation and have more severe consequences.
Connections with others have a host of benefits. They include:
Examples of interpersonal relationships
Human relationships come in all shapes and sizes. Everyone from your next-door neighbor to your life partner has a relationship with you. And because relationships are so unique and complex, they can be tough to categorize.
The most recognizable types of relationships include:
Family
Parents. Siblings. Even cousins. These are likely the first social connections you form, and they’ll impact the rest of your relationships as you grow up. If your family is communicative and loving, your future relationships — especially with romantic partners or your own children — might mimic that dynamic. But if you compare yourself to siblings or express toxic behavior, those will pass down, too.
Family dynamics vary in intensity from person to person and throughout your life. You may feel closer to your guardians and remain distant from other family members, or vice-versa. It all depends on how you were raised and how you interact with the people around you.
You might also have a chosen family: people who offer the same emotional support and commitment as family, but aren’t related to you. These relationships are about kinship rather than a connection through blood.
Friends
You maintain and make friendships throughout your life. Some are situational, such as the relationships you develop at school or summer camp. And others happen according to shared experiences and interests. But no matter how you meet, a good friend offers comfort, support, and companionship.
In terms of depth, friendships run the complete range. You could be content to see certain friends once or twice a year, while others are constant fixtures in your life. That’s okay. Every friend will serve a different purpose for you, whether that’s to make you laugh or offer a shoulder to cry on.
Colleagues
On average, people spend 13 years of their lives at work. It makes sense that you’ll develop work relationships — some of which might extend outside of the office. You might bond over shared interests and meet for coffee, or your relationship might stay professional with short chats throughout the day.
A good working relationship can affect your team dynamic and company culture, improving collaboration, communication, and productivity. But it can also disrupt your focus if all you want to do is talk. Work friendships are all about balance.
Romantic partners
Love and friendship can be hard to differentiate. In fact, 66% of couples started as friends first. But romantic relationships often go beyond friendship, offering a level of intimacy and closeness more similar to family.
Romantic partners should make you feel loved, share your long-term goals and values in a relationship, and communicate about your differences to find common ground.
How to maintain interpersonal relationships: 6 tips
Interpersonal relationships are vital to a happy and healthy life, but it can be difficult to nurture those connections. Between 1990 and 2021, the number of people reporting they did not have a close friend rose from 3% to 12%, according to the Survey Center on American Life.
There are many reasons for a lack of connection. The pandemic impacted people’s access to their friends and family, and technology negatively affects our social interactions.
It’s also harder to make friends as an adult due to relocation, long work hours, and family responsibilities. In 2023, the US surgeon general even issued a warning about the prevalence and health impacts of loneliness.
Given the challenges of making new friends and the importance of a social network to your well-being, it’s crucial to learn the interpersonal skills you need to maintain relationships. Here are six ways to cultivate healthy and successful relationships:
1. Learn to listen
Listening to your friends and loved ones aids communication and collaboration, whether they have a big idea or want to vent about a problem. It demonstrates respect and care for the other’s feelings, opinions, and interests.
A great tool to improve your interpersonal communication is active listening. This technique involves adjusting your eye contact and body language to show someone they have your full attention.
As an active listener, you’re more mindful in your interactions, helping you engage fully with what the other person says. By remaining present in the conversation, you’re in a better position to offer emotional validation and support.
2. Express openness
A healthy relationship requires sharing opinions, experiences, and emotions. This give-and-take helps deepen the emotional connection and intimacy between friends. Without self-disclosure, others don’t have the opportunity to see the real you, understand your troubles, or experience your strength.
Being open in your personal relationships requires vulnerability, which can seem scary. But it offers your friends the chance to stand by you in times of need, much like you’ll be there for them.
3. Communicate often
Communication skills go hand-in-hand with your listening skills. Talk to your friends and partners on a regular basis not only to express your needs and feelings, but to show them you value their presence and opinions.
You can use communication to share life experiences, set expectations, and explain your needs. This lets you create relationships that serve everyone involved and avoid misunderstandings.
4. Be respectful
You don’t have to agree with your friends about everything. But you should demonstrate that you value their interests and thoughts, even when they differ from yours. Constructive conflict can actually give you new ideas and lead to innovation.
Being considerate of someone’s feelings, honoring commitments, and trying to understand their point of view all demonstrate your respect for them. It shows that you value what they bring to the partnership. And in a healthy relationship, the other person will reciprocate that respect.
5. Offer empathy
Empathy and compassion help you connect with others and understand their experiences. They unconsciously make you more sympathetic and able to connect emotionally, and they require a foundation of trust, which is important to any relationship. Engaging empathetically with others encourages caring behavior and cooperation, helping friendships thrive.
6. Set boundaries
A friend, family member, or colleague shouldn’t take up all of your time, thoughts, and emotions. That can lead to mental exhaustion. To avoid more contact than you can handle, you need to establish boundaries.
Boundaries define what you’re willing to accept in a relationship based on your expectations and limitations. You might want a friend to let you know before they come over to talk or ask before they bring up a sensitive subject. Asking them to do these things is setting boundaries.
Talking about, and adhering to, boundaries means you care about each other’s comfort levels, and that goes both ways. Expressing and respecting your needs provides you both with a sense of security, knowing you won’t have to go against your values or bite off more than you can chew.
When a relationship ends
Sometimes, despite your best efforts, a relationship isn’t meant to be. Maybe it was a case of conflicting priorities or a miscommunication, or maybe you just grew apart. This is a normal, but often unfortunate, process.
When this happens, it’s important to grieve the relationship. Feeling sad is a natural and understandable response to losing a friend, no matter how it happens.
During this time, caring for your well-being is essential, and one of the best ways to do that is to surround yourself with other loving friends for comfort. Recognize the great friends in your life, and work to strengthen the bonds of your healthy relationships.
Welcome social relationships of all kinds
Interpersonal relationships are complex. Only some of the people you meet will have the privilege of becoming close to you, and that’s perfectly normal. Everyone has something unique to offer, and being open and welcoming to new social interactions will enrich your life in rare ways.
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