How your lifestyle affects your relationships

Health is a state of complete physical, social, and mental well-being, it is the absence of diseases and other forms of afflictions, individual’s lifestyles affect their various forms of relationships and productivity levels generally. Often in Africa, children are brought up with the fear of the lord, individuals who are trained to live a healthy life have a better relationship with people. How your lifestyle affects your health is in relation to the daily activities you are engaged in and the various roles they play to influence your relationship positively or negatively.

How your lifestyle affects your relationships

Healthy lifestyle is necessary to improve our relationship with people and the society at large. A healthy lifestyle involves activities that only positively impact the lives of people such as exercise, good eating habits, and avoiding bad associations of friends.

Read also

Oxlade Biography and networth

How religion affects development in Africa

There are lifestyle that grossly destroys our relationships, lifestyles such as excessive drinking or alcoholism play a negative role on our relationship with people and God generally, individuals who are drunk seem to be less aware of their environment and may be involved in life-threatening accidents or engagements that risk the peace in their families. Alcoholism is a major cause of domestic violence in many homes, how your lifestyle affects your relationships is a very important factor that each individual must take proper note of as we go about our daily businesses.

Stealing is a bad lifestyle and individuals who steal are usually involve in one form of heart break or the other, stealing is an exhibition of complete loss of values and morals. There are societies where thieves are totally disassociated from the people because of negative influence. your lifestyle is a major factor on the success of a healthy relationship.

Lifestyles such as arrogance and lack of respect for one another brings in total disrespect in relationships and a cause of major loss of interest and abuse in a relationship. Arrogance is not a good virtue and is responsible for many divorces that has been witnessed recently.

Throughout your life, the number and strength of your relationships affect your mental and physical wellbeing.

The benefits of social connections and good mental health are numerous. Proven links include lower rates of anxiety and depression, higher self-esteem, greater empathy, and more trusting and cooperative relationships. Strong, healthy relationships can also help to strengthen your immune system, help you recover from disease, and may even lengthen your life. 

The good news is that while many of these benefits can make you happier and more contented, there’s also a flow-on effect, whereby people around you will want to spend time with you. In this way, social connectedness generates a positive feedback loop of social, emotional and physical wellbeing. 

In contrast, loneliness can have dramatic consequences for your health. Loneliness can lead to disrupted sleep patterns, elevated blood pressure, and increased cortisol (a stress hormone). It can affect your immune system and decrease your overall sense of contentment. Loneliness is also a risk factor for antisocial behaviour, depression and suicide.

Older people are particularly vulnerable. If your mobility decreases, it can be harder to get together with other people. However, older people who remain connected with others and have strong relationships are likely to:

• have a better quality of life 
• be more satisfied with their life
• have a lower risk of dementia and mental decline
• need less domestic support.

Younger people (teenagers and people in their 20s) are also at risk when they are isolated. A lack of social relationships can have a direct impact on a young person’s physical wellbeing by increasing the risk of obesity, inflammation and high blood pressure. 

These three health issues can lead to long-term health problems, including heart disease, stroke and cancer, but a varied social network can help protect against physical decline. 
What’s more, the benefits of social ties are significant, even if your other mortality risk factors (such as socioeconomic status, smoking, drinking, obesity and lack of physical activity) are low. In other words, even if you live a healthy life, you still need to be socially active to stay well and happy.

It’s important to recognize that loneliness is different from solitude. Feeling lonely is a problem, but being alone may not be a problem at all. Many people live alone and have happy, fulfilling lives. Your daily lifestyle affects your relationships too.

How to improve your social connections 

Feeling lonely is hard to cope with. Luckily, there are things you can do to tackle loneliness. For instance, you can nurture healthy relationships with people who make you feel good by spending time with them, and by trying to talk to someone every day. 

There are three kinds of connections that you can have with people:

1. intimate connections – with people who love and care for you, such as family and friends
2. relational connections – with people who you see regularly and share an interest with, such as workmates or those who serve your morning coffee
3. collective connections – with people who share a group membership or an affiliation with you, such as people who vote like you do, or people who have the same faith.

Ask yourself: do you have meaningful, long-term relationships in all these three areas? 

Perhaps you tend to stick with old friends and don’t feel able to meet new people. Or maybe you avoid people from your past, preferring to mix with people who don’t know much about you. Be honest with yourself about your social habits. 

Think about the sorts of relationships you have with people, and the sorts of relationships you would like to have. You might find you want to make new friendships, or perhaps you want to try to make your existing relationships stronger. Your lifestyle affects your relationships and is crucial to your health and well-being.