Introduction
Relationships are among the social bonds that keep people together. Social and positive relationships are sources of belonging, strength, and physical and emotional support. Individuals tend to create social connections with peers, coworkers, relatives, and friends with the hope that they will find satisfaction in life. The connections can be physical or virtual, depending on how choices that people make when looking for friends. Physical connections can be within the classroom, workplaces, religious environments, or within the local settings. Virtual relationships are created and maintained through social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Recent studies in health and social sciences have argued that happy relationships cause and affect a person’s mental, physical, and emotional wellbeing. Happy relationships can cause and trigger effects that reverberate in every aspect of a person’s life.
Discussion
Considerable evidence from social science has found that happy relationships cause positive physical and emotional health. According to a recent randomized controlled trial study by Chao et al., individuals who report of being socially and physically connected tend to live long (108). Happy relationships prevent people from loneliness, stress, and negative thoughts that can trigger suicidal thoughts. On the other hand, people who have formed positive relationships with peers and colleagues can get emotional support before thinking of engaging in harmful behaviors. Friendships have been described by Leschak and Naomi as good antidepressants (7).
Happy people can make more friends and create more social connections that influence a person’s choices in life. No one would wish to create friendship with people who are not socializing or people who are always whining and complaining about every aspect in life.
Existing evidence has also linked happiness in relationships to prevention of cardiovascular and kidney diseases. A study by Chao et al. found that patients diagnosed with chronic kidney diseases healed were more resilient to coping with the disease due to presence of family and social support. Another study by Howick et al. established a causal link between happy social relationships and health fitness (7). The authors investigated Bradford Hill Guidelines to determine the impact of social relationships on individual. The study found that happy relationships prevented people from engaging in harmful behaviors such as smoking, taking alcohol, and other harmful substances that have been linked to lifestyle diseases (Howick et al. 8). Instead of creating room for loneliness, friends can go out for nature walks, watch movies together, set goals, and even end up dating and marrying due to shared goals and interests. Happy relationships can accommodate all challenges and obstacles that people encounter, especially when people spend time together.
Apart from the health point of view, scholars have also found a direct correlation between happy relationships and productivity in workplaces. Sbarra and James investigated the impact of employee happiness and productivity in the workplaces. The study found that happiness improved productivity by more than 12% (49). A similar point was raised by Leschak and Naomi who argued that employees who were happy at home performed better compared to individuals who were living in dissatisfying relationships (7). Stressful relationships reduces concentration at work, increases workplace conflicts, and can trigger burnouts as discussed by Howick et al. (6).
Children who are happy at home or learners who have established positive relationships with parents and tutors tend to perform better because of trust and confidence they have in people guiding them. In the same case, happy employees obtain a sense of belonging in the workplace environments because it is a place they spend most of the time during the week.
Despite the existing evidence on the impact of happiness on relationships, health, and productivity, people ought to learn that happiness is an intrinsic factor. The state of happiness arises from within. It is an emotion that starts from within and can be expressed in form of social bonds, creativity, and laughter. The intrinsic factor of happiness means that everyone should strive to attain or obtain happiness, rather than expecting it from people. According to Chao et al., people who understand that they are responsible for their own happiness tend to be less demanding, accommodate stressful situations, and are satisfied with who they are and what they have (118).
They do not force people to love them or expect others to make them happy (110). Furthermore, Sbarra and James emphasized that happy people can sacrifice time and resources to help others (47). They can create an environment of trust and confidence, can participate in counseling others, and can be willing to sacrifice their own happiness for the sake of colleagues. The understanding should lead one to take action and create an environment that increases happiness. Saying “Hi” or smiling at a colleague at work can trigger a laughter that ends up triggering happiness and lasting social bonds.
Conclusion
Happy relationships are affective. They impact a person’s physical and emotional health, and can change an individual’s attitude in life. Happy people are productive, live longer, and are resilient to challenges encountered in life. However, one should not always expect happiness from the external environment. Happiness is an intrinsic factor bred from within and only expressed through emotions. It is, therefore, important that one learns how to respond and create an environment that promotes positive relationships without necessarily having to expect it from friends and people around.
Works Cited
Chao, Shu-Mei, et al. “Effects of Helping Relationships on Health-Promoting Lifestyles among Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease: A Randomized Controlled Trial.” International Journal of Nursing Studies, 2022, pp. 104-137. Web.
Howick, Jeremy, et al. “Establishing a Causal Link between Social Relationships and Health using the Bradford Hill Guidelines.” SSM-population Health, vol. 8, 2019, pp. 1-9. Web.
Leschak, Carrianne J., and Naomi I. Eisenberger. “Two Distinct Immune Pathways Linking Social Relationships with Health: Inflammatory and Antiviral Processes.” Psychosomatic Medicine, vol. 81, no. 8, 2019, pp. 7-11. Web.
Sbarra, David A., and James A. Coan. “Relationships and Health: The Critical Role of Affective Science.” Emotion Review, vol. 10, no. 1, 2018, pp. 40-54. Web.