Toxic relationships can bring about a lot of stress and turmoil into someone's life, they can sometimes be so damaging that they eventually influence a person to become physically ill. They can bring about a hefty cost in the way of preventing others to be true to themselves, costing people time spent being upset, money wasted, and more.

And it is up to each of us to determine how much of an investment we want to make into our relationships with other people around us.

If we want positive relationships with other people in our life, then we need to work toward achieving that. There are some key characteristics that are commonly found when it comes to the ability to maintain healthy relationships and they are outlined below.

Respect

Healthy relationships involve positive and effective communication and along with that comes respect for the individual. Respect is a pattern of behavior that is commonly seen and found in a variety of different healthy relationships. Whether it be between two friends, two lovers, or between relatives etc, showing respect is always going to be the easy way to try and get along with and maintain positive relationships with those people.

Along with exercising that respect comes the point of choosing words thoughtfully, being willing to compromise, showing consideration, admitting when there has been wrongdoing, honoring boundaries, and acting honorably.

Support

Being supportive and offering encouragement is going to help you to maintain a positive and healthy relationship. Healthy relationships are going to consist of trying to build the other person up, rather than trying to bring them down. In a positive relationship you aren't there to take away from the person's life but to add something to it, and you don't add value by neglecting to offer support to the individual.

Honesty

Creating deeper relationships with people is about connecting in an honest way and in order to do that you need to be vulnerable. If you want others to know the real you then you need to be comfortable with sharing your interests and stories with them etc. And communicating and acting with others in an honest way is an easy way to try and maintain healthy relationships. If there is no honesty within the relationship then some might say that because of the deceit that there isn't really a relationship at all.

Reliability

Be someone that others can rely on to do what you say you are going to do. Honesty isn't just about communication but it is also about keeping our word and proving to people that they can trust what we say. When we act reliably then we are providing evidence in the relationship that we can be trusted and that will only go towards helping to strengthen and maintain that healthy bond. Being reliable, and therefore trustworthy, also means that people can expect you not to spill their secrets or speak negatively about them when they aren't there. When it comes to those who we want to maintain a healthy/positive relationship with, exercising a consistent ability to act in a dependable manner is going to go a long way.