MINDFUL RESTORATION
Relationships with Others
Every relationship that satisfies a variety of your bodily and emotional demands is made up of interpersonal partnerships. These are the people in your life with whom you are most closely bonded. Interactions with family members and close friends are interpersonal interactions in the same way that romantic interactions are.
Secondary interpersonal connections are another thing. These people include your acquaintances, neighbors, and other regular contacts. To put it briefly, you interact with everyone you know in some way. Relationships are important to our mental and physical health, so it's important to learn how to make and keep them.
Relationships do not emerge out of nowhere. In a 1980 study, George Levinger, a psychologist, established five stages of interpersonal relationships. He referred to this as "stage theory," and it contains:
acquaintance
buildup
continuation
deterioration
ending (termination)
Only the first three stages of an interpersonal relationship will be successful. All five of these stages will occur in a friendship or love partnership that culminates in a breakup. Not every relationship will last through the initial stage of getting to know one another. The fact that Levinger's theory shows that relationships between people are both changing and different adds to their importance.