Category: Relationship

How Do You Strengthen A Connection With Someone?

If there is someone you would like to bond with, how do you make that happen? What are the hallmarks of a deep and powerful connection?

Human beings are social creatures. As individuals, we crave connection with other humans, or even with other species.

As part of our social lives, we create and maintain relationships with dozens, or even hundreds of people. That might include, but is not limited to: family, friends, co-workers, neighbors, and pets.

Creating a connection is pretty easy. At a social function, you might strike up a conversation, share a laugh or two, and exchange names.

Strengthening that relationship, however, is a different matter. All relationships need work in order to thrive. The type of work might depend on the person you are dealing with, and the nature of the existing relationship. Getting to know someone you met at a party, for example, will be quite different from the way you build a bond with a sibling.

However, a connection is a connection. Can you think of some ways you can feel closer to someone that you just met, or someone you have fallen out of touch with?

One way to think about it might be to consider what someone else might do to make you feel a close connection. Once you can think of something, doing that thing for others may help. That might be anything form a random text message, to inviting someone over for a homemade meal. Or, perhaps, asking someone to a movie or a play, or playing a board or card game with a group of people.

Each relationship is different, but there may be some commonalities. Can you think of ways to strengthen a connection with someone?

Related questions: What makes a friendship? How do you make friends as an adult? What is your relationship with your pet? How could you show your appreciation for others more?

How Do You Remember Someone Who Has Died?

Death, and dealing with it, is a part of life. When someone you know and like dies, how do you remember them?

The death of a friend or loved one can be traumatic, particularly if that death is unexpected. During the grieving process, there are two primary ways to remember someone.

The first is to remember, or memorialize, soon after the death. Stories might be shared, tears might be shed, and grieving is done communally. In your experience, what are ways that you have publicly celebrated someone’s life?

The second method takes place months and even years after the passing. Remembering what someone was like, after years have gone by, can be difficult. There may be pictures or video to help jog your memory, but even those can be incomplete. And for some people in your life, you may not have any photos or other media saved.

In any case, what can you do to keep that person in your mind? How can you continue to be inspired by them, or be amused, or even just maintain a presence in your life? Is it important?

Related questions: Why are people afraid of death? Does your memory define you? What makes a friendship? Does it matter how long we are remembered?

Mother Figure Or Father Figure?

Of the important people in your life (friends, mentors, teachers, etc.), do you tend to gravitate toward a mother figure, or a father figure?

Share why if you wish.

Mother Figure Or Father Figure?
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If You Were To Do Something To Honor Someone, Who Would It Be And What Would You Do?

If you were to choose a person to honor, and a method by which to honor them, who would you choose and what would you do?

There are times in your life when one person has a significant impact on your growth or development. You may wish, at some point, to honor that person, and the way in which they influenced you.

Which raises a couple of related questions.

The first question is: how do you decide? What metric should you use, when evaluating the influence someone has had on you, if that person merits an honor?

Listen to a podcast where Michael and Lee discuss a related question: ‘What gives a person value?’ We also discuss a bonus question: ‘What makes you you?’

A second question is: what do you do? In what way can you convey, to yourself and others, that an honor of some sort is being bestowed?

The exact nature of the honor can vary quite drastically, based on a number of different variables. For instance, it may depend on the person being honored, if they are alive or dead, and what the relationship was between you.

Or it might depend on the nature of the influence. You may choose, for instance, to honor the role your parents played in your upbringing by visiting them, or calling them regularly.

It may also depend on the resources available to the person doing the honoring. It can be as simple as a card in the mail, or as elaborate as a dedicated building.

Have you ever honored someone, and if so, how? If not, can you think of a person and a way in which you might do the honoring?

Related questions: Who is the most important person in your life? How could you show your appreciation for others more? Who would serve on your personal board of directors? Who was your best teacher? Do you give to charitable or social causes?

What Is Your Relationship With Your Pet?

If you have a pet, how would you characterize your relationship with it? How does it compare with the relationship you have with the people in your life?

Share why if you wish.