Relationships Friends Are Your Soul Mates

The relationships friends provide give us a sense of comfort and belonging. Friends give us compassion and acceptance when we're struggling or honesty and opinion when we're dealing with uncertainty.

As you age, your social relationships will change but it seems that you're given just the right friends at just the right times to make life more satisfying and worthwhile. Truly having a social network of friends enriches our lives and ensures a healthier, happier existence.

To foster healthy relationships, you must be able to provide the relationships friends need. Good friends are patient, understanding and good listeners. For instance, you may have a friend who is always late, yet instead of getting angry when she makes you wait, you should accept her trouble with time management.

Good friends take every opportunity to enrich their friends' lives with positivity. For example, your friend may have mentioned she was super-stressed about final exams, so you could go over and beyond to send her a care package of energy drinks, chocolate covered espresso beans and a rejuvenating face mask.

Good friends listen and help when they can. If your friend is having a relationship crisis, he or she may not need relationships advice as much as a shoulder to cry on. Yet if you can help your friend move out of the shared apartment, do not hesitate. Lastly, good friends forgive quickly and accept that people are only human.

There are so many reasons to maintain the relationships friends offer. Sure, you may have a great marriage, but romance relationships may not be able to give you the honest objective opinion of a friend. You might have family that can support you unconditionally, but you may not be able to tell them about a substance abuse problem.

Your friends will boost your happiness and share in your successes, whether it's a new baby, a job promotion or a new house. Your friends will help you weather storms like divorce, injury, illness, the death of a loved one or job loss. Thanks to our social relationships, we'll live longer, healthier and happier lives.

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Exercise Mental Processes To Improve Relationships

According to love advice therapist and author Dr. Linda Miles, you can create a "new marriage" if you exercise mental areas of your life. You can view sexual relationships as the glue that ultimately keeps a marriage together.

However, it's equally important to find a sense of peace and happiness within oneself to be the best partner you can be and stay more in-tune with the needs of others. It's nearly impossible to meet another person's desires if you're not even in harmony with your own. There are a number of techniques that foster better love and relationships.

"Emotional analysis" is one important way to exercise mental processes and emotions. You'll begin to view negative thoughts as the body's "fight or flight response" to a situation and you'll come to realize these thoughts are often unfair. Beneath each emotion is a set of underlying thoughts that led to the physical response.

Often if you're angry with someone, it's because you either feel the person is preventing you from reaching your goal, you feel the other person is attacking you, or you feel the person is responsible for the undesirable situation at hand. Health guides recommend that you relax, list your assumptions, fairly challenge these assumptions and take action.

De-stressing is an important exercise mental technique that has many different methods. The importance of eating well, sleeping well and keeping your body in peak physical condition cannot be overstated, when it comes to centering yourself. Some people find a sense of inner calm through yoga or another type of physical exercise.

Instead of letting your mind clutter up, you can focus on your body's exertion. Other people have peaceful hobbies like painting, reading or golfing, which clears the mind. Learning relaxation breathing can be extremely helpful for immediate relaxation.

There are a number of self-help tapes focusing on calming meditation as well. Taking a time-out from work and getting away for the weekend is great at reinvigorating sexual relationships with one's spouse and creating positive memories.

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Mastering Skills To Build Relationships

"Love and intimacy are at the root of what makes us sick and what makes us well," explains Dean Ornish, M.D., author of Love & Survival. "When you look at the scientific data, the need for love and intimacy is as important and basic as eating, breathing and sleeping."

He argues that our need to build relationships that are long-lasting and fulfilling is essential to our cardiovascular health, our recovery from illness and our very longevity. There are many key components of successful intimate relationships.

The ability to resolve conflict is something that partners will likely work on their whole lives as they build relationships that can withstand the test of time. When conflicts inevitably arise, it's important to remain in the present and let go of what has happened in the past.

Choose your battles wisely and avoid nitpicking over every little thing. Be open to forgiveness, which will ultimately lead to happiness. Sometimes you must be mature enough to "agree to disagree" when a resolution can't be found. Using positive nonverbal communication and humor can help diffuse most tense situations and maintain healthy relationships.

Once you've mastered the skills needed to build relationships and maintain them, you'll wonder why you ever had trouble in the first place. It may seem artificial at first to keep saying things like, "My, you look wonderful today" or "So, tell me about your struggles and triumphs of the day," but you'll find that opening the lines of communication will strengthen your intimacy and your bonds.

You may feel guilty taking off work on Saturdays to plan a date with your spouse, but quality time is the best way to make old, stale relationships feel like new relationships again.

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Better Sex Relationships Saves Your Marriage

Roughly 40 to 50 percent of all divorces involve a deep dissatisfaction with sex relationships. It's no wonder, then, that marriage therapists often stress the role of good communication and intimate relationships when giving love advice.

The problem with sex as we age is that life gets busier, our needs change, our bodies change and we may lose the excitement of new relationships. Therefore, it's important that a couple vows to make a healthy sex life a priority.

Another bit of love advice Barry McCarthy gives couples is to not expect Hollywood sex relationships. "When you're living together and have two kids, two jobs, etc., if you're having Hollywood sex once a month, then you're doing great," he says. In fact, 15% of the average happy couple's sexual encounters aren't even enjoyable for one or both partners.

Sometimes it's hurried, uncomfortable, someone's not in the mood or orgasm isn't reached, he explains, but the key is to have sex often so it doesn't seem as though something is wrong with the relationships romance if everything doesn't play out like a day-time soap opera.

There are many ways to invigorate sex relationships. Some couples save lovemaking for nighttime but find they're often too tired to make it happen or it becomes like a routine chore. Relationships sex therapists recommend changing it up sometimes.

Have sex in the morning, when the body is still feeling the effects of natural dopamine, when the mind is fresh and clear. Or couples can take an overnight excursion to a bed-and-breakfast or hotel to change up the scenery and keep it interesting.

Mentally, couples should focus on enjoying the present moment, slowing things down and making eye contact. Perhaps a visit to a sex shop, a lingerie store or buying the Kama Sutra book of sexual positions can bring new intrigue to a relationships sexual encounter.

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Building Relationships When Miles Apart

Sometimes building relationships involves cultivating your own personal interests, goals and psyche. Long distance relationships require designated time to connect via phone, webcam, letter or scheduled visits.

Yet they also ask that you stay busy and work toward your goals to fill your time and prevent loneliness or depression symptoms from overwhelming you. As British poet Thomas Haynes Bayly once wrote: "Absence makes the heart grow fonder." What he didn't detail is what efforts must be undertaken to achieve this end.

Building relationships involves doing things together, which poses some difficulty if you're hundreds of miles apart. Sure, you can talk on the phone together but this can become monotonous. Some couples watch a TV show or movie together over the phone or play online games together.

You can share journal entries or quizzes to learn even more about each other and grow closer. You can read the same book and discuss it, or make it an audio book during your work commute if you're pressed for time! You can sing karaoke together online and have a few laughs at www.ronansonlinekaraoke.com.

Some people in long distance relationships make the same meal, get dressed up and sit down to eat it over web cam. While this may not sound satisfying, you'd be surprised at how a little innovative contact can bring two people together!

Building relationships that last is all about creating a foundation of trust, understanding, communication and determination. Studies show that long distance relationships are equal to intimate relationships that are in close proximity in terms of relationship satisfaction, commitment, intimacy and trust.

If you're good at communicating your needs, making time for your love, working toward a goal and exercising patience, then you just may find the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

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Strengthening And Maintaining Personal Relationships

Psychologists suggest that forming and maintaining personal relationships is part of our normal development. People require stable interpersonal relationships to avoid depression symptoms, anxiety, loneliness and unhappiness. Other people can back up our self concept or force a moment of illumination.

Their presence can help us determine what is "normal" and how we compare to society, at large. We derive companionship, intellectual stimulation and a sense of completeness from our various relationships. There are several components to maintaining healthy relationships.

Another way to strengthen any of your personal relationships is to learn to manage anger properly. The feeling of anger rises up naturally and you can't possibly fault yourself (or anyone else) for having emotional responses. The problem comes when the angry person can't manage that anger, which results in overreacting, shouting, name-calling, breaking things, or even becoming physically violent.

It's important that you learn to keep your anger under control but it's also important that your partner understands how to avoid your triggers. Positive communication breeds healthy relationships, which can keep both partners away from a cataclysmic meltdown.

If you feel overwhelmed by the problems in your personal relationships, then you may want to consider counseling. You can get individual, family or marriage counseling for a wide variety of issues, including marital difficulty, divorce, addiction, substance abuse, depression symptoms, work stress, grief/trauma, parenting skills, emotional abuse, physical violence, financial troubles, eating disorders, chronic health disorders or low self-esteem.

Sometimes all it takes is an impersonal eye to alert you to patterns and then telling you the methods of creating healthy relationships. The first step toward happiness is admitting there's a problem and enlisting professional help to find the best solution.

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Healthy Dating Relationships With Open Communication

Dating relationships carry a lot of uncertainty and complexity. Few occurrences are more invigorating or emotional than new relationships. However, these blissful experiences can quickly become rollercoaster rides where personalities clash and fighting occurs. We see couples smashing dishes, pushing each other and nitpicking at each other's habits on TV and in movies.

We hear about our friends arguing over seemingly everything and encountering power struggles for control of the relationship. It can be difficult to objectively answer the question about what makes healthy relationships.

Healthy dating relationships always have a base of good, positive communication. One thing to understand is that not everyone communicates the same way. Some people are quieter than others, yet it's still crucial to speak up when something doesn't feel right. Otherwise, it's unfair to the other person, who doesn't have the opportunity to change until it's too late. When you express your feelings, you'll want to see if the other person responds.

You should never feel "afraid" to bring up a concern. You should never feel threatened. There should never be any name-calling or heated screaming. There should never be physical harm. There should never be any teasing, ridiculing or passive-aggressive sarcasm intended to hurt the other person. Instead, each partner should be able to express grievances, to listen and to respond.

Ultimately, the key to healthy dating relationships is to understand and love oneself. For example, a woman who has been cheated on time and time again by successive partners may, deep down, feel like she isn't worth anything. She'll suffer from depression symptoms and low self-esteem, wondering what she's missing that makes partners stray.

Yet, outwardly she'll view her partner suspiciously and may call him incessantly, accuse him of cheating or looking at another girl the wrong way, thereby pushing him away. She might view everything as "his fault" and fail to see how her own insecurities are at play here. Spending some time alone, soul-searching and trying to think more positively is really what this woman will need to make healthy relationships a reality.

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Showing You Care With Love Relationships

Love relationships are a lot like having a pet lion; if you don't feed it everyday, something very bad will happen. Conventional love advice says that coming up with daily rituals to keep the relationship afloat is an ideal way to connect.

Perhaps it means sitting down for meals together or spending an extra half hour in bed talking each night. Maybe it's leaving post-it notes for your love or calling from work to say you care. The most important ingredient to healthy relationships is simply making time.

The next key to creating happy love relationships is replacing negative communication with positive communication. Reaffirmations are daily rituals that may begin as little more than an exercise but will eventually ring true. If you continually profess your love to your partner, you will begin to feel emotions stirring inside you.

Sometimes all it takes to get someone in an amorous mood is a few thoughtful compliments. Sexual relationships improve when partners let each other know what physical features they admire most. Even though you know full-well your spouse admires your eyes, it's still nice to hear even after 25 years of marriage. Speaking playfully with one another inspires a fresh approach to communication that can be rather fun.

Many married couples forego love relationships and settle for friendship relationships. They complete their daily duties like wind-up dolls, devoid of passion. They work their jobs, they take care of their kids, they do their chores, they go to sleep and do it all over again.

Often, if couples open up and communicate, they can rekindle romantic relationships on their own. In other cases, the cause of dissatisfaction or the loss of passion isn't clear-cut and love advice from a marriage counseling therapist is needed. You can have the satisfaction you desire if you are determined to get it.

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Teens With First Date Ideas

First date ideas may include spending intimate moments together, where you can find out a lot about each other. You may want to find out if you are right for each other. You may go the same school, work in the same job, or meet often at the local youth center. The more time you can spend together, the more you will know about each other.

You may find you need to spend time away from interruptions, so you can watch a movie and then go to the coffee house. This is the time when you can ask your date about likes and dislikes, career choices and her outlook on life. You may even discuss your mutual friends, but then you may look to avoid malicious gossip as your date may feel upset about your comments.

On your first date, you want everything to go smoothly, to see if you want to go out on more dates. If it is a dream date and everything goes well, then you may mutually agree to see each other again. If it is not a pleasant date, then you may need to find another date by visiting dating sites and browsing for dating prospects. There are many dating sites covering a wide range of ages, including teens with first date ideas.

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Domestic Violence Spells Danger For Relationships

Just how dangerous is domestic violence? Of all rapes, 3/4 of them were perpetrated by a spouse, date, boyfriend or acquaintance. Thirty percent of female murder victims were killed by their partner. About 1 in 3 American women have been victims of a physical or sexual crime from a husband or boyfriend in their lifetimes. Additionally, murder is the leading cause of death for pregnant women.

The biggest risk for personal injury in domestic violence relationships comes at the point of separation, which is why most victims are reluctant to leave. Since threats and violence are typically control strategies, the abuser may feel more inclined to react extremely to maintain power.

However, the break can be done quickly, efficiently and safely with a proper plan. Emergency, shelter and counseling services are available through the Red Cross, Family Rescue, the National Organization of Women and the National Domestic Abuse hotline. These organizations can help you devise and implement a safe escape plan.

You may also call one of the following hotlines: the National Abuse at 1-800-25ABUSE, Friends of Battered Women and Their Children at 1-800-603-HELP, the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-SAFE (7233), the Elder Abuse Hotline at 1-800-252-8966, or the National Youth Crisis number at 1-800-448-4663.

By calling these numbers, you can receive services, including crisis intervention, safe separation planning assistance, referrals to counselors, programs or services and police escorts.

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Man Seeking Women And Finding Miss Perfect

Man seeking women can be rather tricky. There are many women available on the singles scene, but you may be setting your limits too high and cannot finding the perfect woman. If you lower the bar, you may have the chance to meet more women and some may be more interesting than the perfect woman. If a woman is not perfect, she knows she has to make herself more appealing, so she works harder to please you.

If she is perfect, then she can get any man she wants, any time. You may find a perfect woman is more trouble, as she may have other men seeking her pleasures, even while she is with you. If you lower your limits, you may get a less than perfect woman, who wants to stay with you and will do anything to keep you in her arms.

Making yourself ready to accept a wider variety of women allows you to take advantage of wider opportunities when you are a man seeking women.

But if are having problems finding the perfect lady, then you may need to think about about your needs and requirements. Are they reasonable? Is there room for making allowances? You may be looking for a 21 year old slim blonde. Many of these slim blondes are taken. You may need to widen your field and see if you can find a lady who may have more intelligence and can hold a conversation.

Alternatively, you can find women online. You can go online and become a member of dating sites and browse through dating profiles. If there are available women, living in your local area that may be more appealing than a perfect woman who lives in another state, or even in another country.

Keeping your eyes and ears wide open, will allow you to meet with more success when you are a man seeking women.

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Dating Sites With Live Webcams For Single Dating

Single dating facilities are now available online where you can talk, see and hear your online date. Where at one time you could only chat online, exchange emails and talk on the phone. These days, you can see and hear your dating prospect, to ensure you are meeting a quality date and not a date from hell. Video chatting helps you achieve your peace of mind.

Web chatting has helped to increase the popularity of online single dating. Gone are the days when you are not sure if you are meeting a boy or girl. You may have been chatting online for months, but the only information you had, may have been a photo that was taken years ago and you were not sure if the person in the photo is the person you are about to meet.

When looking for dates online, check out the site first. Are the dating prospects appealing to you? Would this be a site you would want to place your own dating profile, so that people can contact you for dates? If you feel a positive vibe, you may try out the site and see if you can get some quality dates.

One way to ensure you will meet a quality date is to take time to prepare to meet someone you know. The biggest disappointment, is when you thought you were talking to a young lady, but you later find out through the grapevine that your dating prospect is a boy still in high school. Or worse, is an older man or woman.

One way to avoid disappointment, is to find out if the dating site has live web cam facilities, where you can webchat to dating prospects live. This way you can see your dating prospect and know that you will be dating the person you are seeing on your screen. Once you find mutual appeal, then you may agree to go out on a date.

Dating sites with webcam facilities are one of the better facilities available to make it easier to find prospects for single dating.

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Best Internet Dating Sites With The Better Dating Facilities And Services

Best internet dating sites are dating sites with fantastic facilities, better dating matches and customer service. There are free and paid sites. The better dating sites are often the paid sites as these often have reliable customer support and weed out the weirdos from their database. If you are a member of a paid dating site and have a problem with a dating prospect, you can often contact customer service and find a solution.

Many dating sites offer facilities to chat. The paid dating sites offer more facilities, including live webcam communication with your online date. Being able to see your dating prospect, talking live on a webcam, may be an ideal way to find out as much as you can about your dating prospect, before you finally go out on a date.

Just remember. There is someone out there looking for you. In order for someone to find you, you need to have a plan of action. You can talk to your friends and see if there are people who are looking for a blind date.

A blind date, can be a tryout, to see how many things you have in common. She might be perfect for you, but then she may have appealing aspects, that may override some of the less appealing aspects. In this case, perfection is a myth. Looking for perfection, may take years and you may end spending too many Saturday nights on your own.

Another way to find a match, is to place your dating profile on a number of dating sites. Almost all dating sites are membership based and the ones who charge a fee are the ones that are often more reliable and have staff who can weed out the weirdos.

It may be better to try a paid site and a free site and see the difference in service. You may find the best internet dating sites are the paid sites and these are the one who have better customer support.

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Violence Against Women And Offering A Way Out

Domestic abuse and date rape are just two forms of violence against women. In the US alone, as many as 4 million women are said to be victims of domestic violence. Historically speaking, women have suffered in tremendous ways; as personal sex slaves, as trafficked prostitutes or as manual laborers. It's difficult to conceive that such horrific occurrences still take place but victimization against women is a cruel reality worthy of our attention.

The Violence Against Women Act of 1994 appropriated more than $4 billion to combat domestic violence, stalking and sexual assault nationwide. This act was heralded by the National Organization for Women as "the greatest breakthrough in civil rights for women in nearly two decades!"

The national spotlight was suddenly shining on prevention programs, abuse hotlines, more public programs for victims and a new international policy that fostered women's equality.

The road to ending violence against women is long and arduous. The key to lasting crime prevention is education and programs set up to offer women a way out. Owing in part to the rising number of shelters for battered women, the number of men killed by their wives or girlfriends has decreased because many women can now escape, yet unfortunately, the number of victimized women has remained the same.

To combat the problem in America, groups like the National Organization of Women, the Department of Justice and the Center for Disease Control have added domestic violence to their agendas.

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Counseling Helps Prevent Divorces

Divorces cannot end well and there is no "easy way out." While some couples feel they can "agree to disagree" and make a clean break, their kids may not feel the same way. Moreover, the financial and emotional toll can be easily underestimated. With the exception of abusiveness, many marital conflicts can be resolved through marriage family counselors, or, if you'd like, a counseling alternative like meeting with a financial advisor.

Counseling for couples has prevented many divorces. Sometimes, the problem is that couples aren't communicating their goals, desires, expectations and feelings adequately. By learning conflict, resolution and communication skills, couples can often obtain healthy and happy relationships.

Licensed professional counselors bring years of formal training, rigorous study, experience and an impartial judgment to the table that a married couple simply doesn't have on their own. Sometimes people aren't even fully aware what's bothering them beneath the surface-level conflict, so a marriage therapist will be helpful in identifying underlying stressors. Couples can learn to work through problems, forgive and get over the past.

Sometimes counseling for marriage prevents divorces by laying out simple guidelines, identifying wants/needs and giving the impression of a fresh start. Other times, the rules laid out during a counseling session are broken by one or both of the party, which leads to a divorce regardless.

Either way, at least the couples will take the next step knowing they did all they could to salvage the marriage. Whether reunited or separated, they'll take their new communication, mediation and financial skills to their next stage of life.

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