The most important criteria for happy relationships
Our lives are shaped by our relationships to those who are most important to us. They determine the happiness or sadness of our existence and how we feel about our quality of life. But despite their importance, hardly anything is done to support couples’ relationships. Society sees them merely as private intimacy, while lawmakers do little to provide a bedrock for them to flourish. Globally, committed relationships seem to be on the wane, with the blatantly visible concomitant effects often ignored in the same way that issues such as deforestation once were.
Anyone seeking to focus on what is truly important in life must explore and develop the two foundations of his or her central life relationship. The quality of our most important interpersonal bond is paramount. It has an importance that cannot be overstated, being the predominant factor in both our happiness and our despair, and is a vital determinant for our health. Yet it also influences strongly the ability of our children to enter into emotional bonds themselves.
