Source: Image of Girls Hugging, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/KQdYNL Image of Beach Family, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/sGQt10 Image of Mother & Son, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/csOvVk Image of Couple, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/OU9Uxy Image of Friends, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/fKnG0r
Hi, I'm Julie Tietz. And welcome to Conflict Resolution-- putting the pieces together. Today, our topic for discussion is no one is an island-- the need for relationships. Let's start off with breaking this down on our key terms.
Relationship-- groups of two or more that share a sense of interdependence, form around common goals, values, and shared experiences. Interdependence-- a state in which each member of a relationship is mutually dependent on the others, for example, through emotionally, economically, ecologically, and/or morally reliant on and responsible to each other.
We all have different kinds of relationships in our lives. And we need these relationships in our lives. And this is related to our genetics actually in that we need to be around other humans. We are social beings. And we must be in groups to survive.
And so when we form relationships, I want to ask you this question is how do we form relationships? How do you form a relationship? Well, maybe for you, it's a process that happens over time. It's typically not instantaneous. And it requires that the parties find commonalities with each other, so things that they agree on, interests that they share, common goals.
And also, through sharing different experiences-- we form these bonds with other people through sharing different experiences. And that's how we form our relationships is through a process over time and commonalities and through our experiences together.
And when we have formed these relationships through these experiences that we share with each other, we have this sense of belonging together. This is the place or these are the people that I know I can count on. They can lift me up when I'm sad. I can count on them to have fun with me. And I can count on them to understand me because we have shared experiences together. We have common interests. We talk about our values and our goals that we share.
And so I know this is the place where I will always belong. And it's my go-to spot. And it feels good to be here. It feels good to belong to a group, to belong to a partner. Feels good to belong. We all know how this feels. And it's actually part of one of our needs. One of our needs is to have this sense of belonging and to be appreciated and to appreciate others in our relationships.
Now that we've covered no one is an island, the need for relationships, let's go over our key points. In relationships, we cannot survive without groups. As social beings, we need to be in relationships. We need to have them as part of our genetic structure. And in order to survive, we have to have groups or relationships in our lives.
And we form relationships through commonalities whether that's through common goals, values, and even common experiences that we have together. And as our relationships grow, we gain these mutual interests in each other's welfare. So we care about what happens to other people.
And in final closing, the sense of belonging in relationships are all part of our needs in our life. And we must have them to feel fulfilled. So I really hope that you appreciate your relationships more because you really do need them to get through in your life. And I hope you learned something. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.