How to Keep Healthy Relationships and Maintain Your Wellness When You’re Ill

  • By Miranda Davis
  • 28 June 2021
  • 6 minute read
How to Keep Healthy Relationships and Maintain Your Wellness While Living With Chronic Illness | The Health Sessions

This article is written by Miranda Davis. 

Making a relationship work is hard enough when both partners are fit, but things can become complex when one or both people are suffering from a chronic illness. Thankfully, there are actions you can take to maintain a strong relationship while also maintaining your wellness. In this article, we will look at tips on how to achieve physical wellness and how to maintain mental wellness.

1. Increase Your Communication to Improve Your Relationship

Are you wondering how to maintain wellness in an emotional dimension? Well, it starts with communication. Communication is critical in all relationships but doubly important when you or your partner is dealing with health issues. Your partner will never know exactly what it’s like to deal with your side effects and experience your emotions. However, you can help your partner understand your pain and play a positive role in maintaining your wellness by telling them.

We know it’s difficult to tell your partner how you feel, and many of us are worried about appearing weak or being complainers. But you’ll be surprised at how easy it is to maintain your relationship letting your partner know what is happening and the effect it can have on your wellness.

By simply telling your partner about your pain level, they will know how to act properly. For example, if you tell your partner that you are in pain and need to stay in bed, they are going to support and give you the care you need. It will help you maintain your wellness. However, if you keep it all inside, your partner may take offence at your poor mood or unwillingness to give them attention, resulting in a fight. Remember, communication is the key to a healthy relationship and an important way to maintain mental wellness.

How to Keep Healthy Relationships and Maintain Your Wellness While Living With Chronic Illness | The Health Sessions
All images by Mikhail Nilov via pexels.com

2. Emotional Intimacy Is Important For Wellness

Being vulnerable with our partners when we’re dealing with an illness is hard because we don’t want to lose our partner over our condition. That’s why it’s so common for people with chronic illness to maintain a brave face and hide their vulnerability. This front you put up can not only make you feel distant from your partner but can also make it difficult to maintain your wellness. Building emotional intimacy is a lengthy process and sometimes couples need outside help and seek a Dating Mentor to assist them.

One way to maintain and improve your emotional intimacy is to focus on using more detailed descriptions when talking. For example, if your partner asks you how you are, don’t simply reply with “good”. You should explain your feelings and use multiple sentences to describe your current mood. Remember, when maintaining wellness, it’s also better to overshare with your partner than keep things hidden away.

By accurately describing your feelings and emotions, your partner will be able to help you maintain your wellness and ensure your relationship stays strong. For example, if you tell your partner a specific part of your back is sore, they can massage it. If you tell them you are feeling a bit discouraged and lacking motivation, they can take you to see an inspiring movie or show. There is no doubt that expressing your emotions is a healthy behavior to maintain wellness, so next time you are talking to your partner, don’t be shy! Share how you truly feel, your partner’s considerate reaction will help you maintain your wellness.

3. Laugh and Have Fun With Your Partner

While dealing with a chronic illness, it can be tempting to focus on the negative, which makes maintaining your wellness and enjoying your partner challenging. However, there is so much joy you can experience in this world, and one of those special moments is laughter. Laughter is one of the best ways to maintain your wellness as it can be used to relieve stress. Also, it reduces the pain level and relaxes your muscles due to the hormones released when you are happy. If you need a few chuckles, you can turn on your favorite comedy, or you can make a date out and head to a live comedy show.

Did you know that when you laugh, your body releases endorphins which help you form a deeper and closer connection with your partner? This makes laughter the perfect recipe to help reignite that spark in your relationship and strengthen or maintain your bond. In those moments when you and your partner are laughing, all of your concerns and worries about maintaining your wellness will vanish, and you will experience a sense of peace.

How to Keep Healthy Relationships and Maintain Your Wellness While Living With Chronic Illness | The Health Sessions

4. You and Your Partner Are Stronger Together

Your partner could be key in how to maintain personal wellness. Dealing with a chronic illness and trying to maintain wellness can really weigh you down. But if you share some of the burdens with your partner, life becomes a little easier and your relationship will improve.

While, of course, your partner can’t feel your pain, you can let them get involved in your healing and wellness process. This could be organizing appointments, taking care of your medicine and ensuring you have everything you need to live a somewhat normal life. You will be surprised at how much your mental wellness improves by getting your partner more involved in your health and wellness journey. Letting your partner handle even small tasks, will give you more time for maintaining your physical and mental wellness.

Conclusion

If you have a chronic illness, you have probably asked yourself how to maintain health and wellness? This question becomes even more complex when you are in a committed relationship and trying to consider the feelings of another person.

Fortunately, your partner can actually have a positive effect on your mental and physical wellness. To maintain your wellness remember about displaying emotional intimacy and having fun. If you follow these tips, you will have a great relationship and be able to maintain your wellness. Please comment below on how you maintain your wellness while still staying close with your partner.

Author’s bio: Miranda Davis is a freelance writer in the relation and psychology area. Miranda is interested in such topics as building healthy relationships between people, love/sex compatibility, and how to find the right balance in life in general. She is currently doing specific research on the topic. Miranda loves cooking and long-distance walking.

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