Healthy Relationships
Modeling Qualities of Healthy Relationships
Respect is thinking or treating someone with consideration, to appreciate them, and honour someone’s opinions and feelings.
Kindness is treating others the way you want to be treated, the golden rule. It is being friendly, caring, and helpful.
Trust is being honest, matching our words and feelings with our thoughts and actions.
Good Communication is clear, honest, and respectful of others’ feelings. The ability to work through disagreements/arguments and come to a calm understanding.
Independence is being able to do your own thing and have different groups of friends.
Fun is when you have fun together but not at the expense of others (not having fun by picking on other people).
Equality is when no one misuses their power or skills to hurt or control others.
Safety is feeling like your body and emotions are safe with/around this person.
Empathy is being able to see a person’s world with no judgement, understand their feelings and communicate your understanding.
Empathy Statements can help us consider other people’s experiences without judgement. This can help us understand what people may be feeling, and even why they are behaving in a particular way.
- Empathy Statement 1: I saw, and it made me feel… describe what happened and how you felt
- Empathy Statement 2: They may have felt… think about how the person felt when the situation was happening
- Empathy Statement 3: They may need… think about what this person might need immediately and, in the future, to prevent or stop the bullying from happening again
Respecting Personal Boundaries is listening to what someone says, respecting someone’s answer, and not pushing people to do or say things they are not comfortable with.
Understanding is using empathy and being aware of other people’s emotions.
Promoting Healthy Relationships
Healthy relationships are not just with other people. They are also the ones we have with ourselves, too. Loving oneself can be challenging, but it is important to promote self-love to your child/youth.
If this is something you are struggling with, please talk to someone, like a counsellor, doctor, or elder. You deserve to be happy and love yourself, too! The wonderful thing about you loving yourself is it provides your child/youth with a model of what it looks like so they are more likely to adopt self-love too! If you have been struggling with loving yourself or having confidence, having confidence can feel self-centred, but having healthy self-esteem is not selfish. It is important!
What Is Self-Esteem and Why Is It Important?
Self-Esteem is how you think and feel about yourself.
We can either have positive or negative self-esteem.
Self-esteem influences our overall happiness. If we are not happy with ourselves, our happiness in other aspects of our lives is impacted, too. Having a positive view of oneself helps us to try new things, connect with others, believe in ourselves, and work hard to conquer challenging tasks.
Our self-esteem might fluctuate here and there but building an overall sense of self-love and acceptance is important to your health and happiness.
Self-esteem is also influenced by body image and body image influences self-esteem.
Body Image is how a person views their body (in their mind and when they look in the mirror). How a person views their body can be impacted by self-esteem and cultural ideals of beauty.
Further Resources
If you would like to speak to someone about mental health issues, the Alberta Health Services Mental Health Help Line is available 24/7, offering information and referrals on any aspect of mental health.
Call toll-free: 1-877-303-2642
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