Interpersonal Relationships
     Understanding the importance of social connections, and how to maintain them is the key to creating meaningful interpersonal relationships that follow us through life’s ups and downs. Interpersonal relationships are the emotional bonds we create with the people around us. This refers to both our close relationships with family members, friends, romantic partners, and our more surface-level interactions with acquaintances and coworkers. Any time when we interact with someone, we’re creating an interpersonal relationship, whether it lasts for only a few minutes or our whole lives. Everyone has different personality, so no relationship is the same. And personal connections ebb and flow based on individual needs and levels of commitment. Maybe we don’t talk to a childhood best friend anymore because of distance. Or, we’re close with a work colleague because we’ve bonded over a shared experience. This is a natural part of the relationship lifecycle. In modern times, we, actually, rely on cooperation with others to fulfill our lives not only to necessarily survive, but also to live happily and emotionally.
Connections with others have a host of benefits. They include:
1.    Feelings of well-being and happiness
2.    A sense of belonging
3.    A positive effect on how we manage stress
4.    Access to new perspectives and ideas
5.    Enhanced resilience in times of crisis, such as a job loss, or the death of a loved one
6.    Improved self-esteem
In fact, throughout our lives, except for our family members and siblings, we make friends and maintain friendships from time to time, such as the relationships we develop at school, or others according to shared experiences and interests. But no matter how we meet, a good friend offers comfort, support, and companionship. Here are six ways to cultivate healthy and successful relationships:
1. Learn to listen
It demonstrates respect and care for the other’s feelings, opinions, and interests. As an active listener, we’re more mindful in our interactions, engaging fully with what the other person says. 
2. Express openness
A healthy relationship requires sharing opinions, experiences, and emotions. Being open in our personal relationships requires sincerity.
3. Communicate often
We need to use communication very often to share our life experiences, expectations, and understandings with our friends.
4. Be respectful
We don’t have to agree with our friends about everything. But we should demonstrate that we value their interests and thoughts, even when they differ from ours. 
5. Offer empathy
Empathy and compassion help us connect with our friends, and let us understand their experiences.
6. Set boundaries
Boundaries define what we’re willing to accept in a relationship based on our expectations and limitations. Boundaries also mean that we care about each other’s comfort levels, and respect each other.
However, sometimes, despite our best efforts, a relationship isn’t meant to be. Feeling sad is a natural and understandable response to losing a friend, no matter how it happens. Interpersonal relationships are complex. Only some of the people we meet will have the privilege of becoming close to us, and that’s perfectly normal. Everyone has something unique to offer, and being open and welcoming to new social interactions will still enrich our life in rare ways. It’s important to give us and our friends enough time to think and settle down. Besides, we don’t complain the situations but stay positive to handle as well as to improve things, once something wrong happens among friends. We have to talk to our friends about expectations and boundaries, and then, wait calmly for the outcome. To sum up, if the situation is not good enough, we talk it out to our friends, express ourselves fully, gain support from our friends, stay positive toward it, give more room and space to figure out, and, at last, solve the problems. Eventually, we need to, patiently, take time to the results. If things still haven’t managed to sort it out, at least, we won’t regret not making efforts.