Have you ever considered why it is important to have friends outside of your relationship?
In a healthy relationship, your partner might feel like your best friend, confidant, and favorite person. While this deep bond is beautiful, relying solely on one person for all your emotional and social needs can strain the relationship.
This is one of the reasons why maintaining friendships outside of your romantic relationship is crucial for a balanced, fulfilling life.
Our friends are crucial in supporting and shaping who we are and who we will become at all stages of our lives. Still, it gets difficult to maintain them as we grow older and manage friendships with our schedules, relationships, and priorities shift.
Having tunnel vision for your partner can lead you to neglect your friends and might even mean you begin to develop unhealthy patterns and behavior; spoiler alert- having good friends may improve your romantic relationship.
We’ll share tips to help you nurture essential connections with people and avoid relying on your partner to meet all your needs.
Why Are Friends Important Outside Of Your Relationship
Psychological Well-being
Friendships have been linked with psychological well-being; they can significantly impact your health and enrich your life in many ways, especially psychologically.
Friendships provide psychological and emotional benefits whether you’re coupled up or not, but they can even help improve your romantic relationship.
Having friends you can rely on and trust provides much-needed support and an outlet for stress, making you a better partner overall.
Authenticity
The joys of romantic relationships often steal the limelight in our culture, but friendships have been proven to be just as fulfilling – albeit in a different way.
With friends, it can sometimes feel easier to be more original at ease, with friendship there’s more freedom and authenticity which can often be more relaxing than being with your partner – especially in the early days of an intimate relationship when you’re still finding your feet.
Selflessness
Friendship with the right person can help in many ways; Friendship channeled to the right person and positive energy can create a lot of benefits for both parties.
Positive friendship can offer a lot of help than harm to a person, such as;
- Emotional and mental support
- Increased level of intrinsic joy and happiness.
- Friendship aids a sense of belonging and increases the level of connectivity.
- Friendship advocates for selflessness and personal time.
Intimacy
Friendships tend to be much less emotionally and physically demanding than intimate relationships – providing the perfect antidote to the intensity or mundanity of a long-term relationship.
This will, in turn, help to build intimacy between you and your partner because less intimacy with friends will create a longing for intimacy with your partner.
Companionship
One person can’t do it all for you. In most cases, your partner can’t give you all you need. He or she can’t be your friend at the same time, partner at the same therapist, and at the same time your companion- albeit most partners can absorb all in one and afford to give it, but in this case, your partner isn’t ready to do so, seek help from a friend.
Attentiveness
The importance of friendship in a relationship helps balance attentiveness; priorities shift, and we get preoccupied with many important things like work, family functions, educational activities, etc.
However, the ability to understand this is determined by an understanding partner.
Your partner can need attention at the same time when you are busy, and not responding to them at this time to your partner is a form of neglect, but a partner with friendship outside can always seek an alternative, “ a responsible one.”
Health Wise
Friendship has a lot of health benefits to the soul; friendship can foster health values, importance, and benefits.
Friendships have been linked with psychological well-being; they can significantly impact your health and enrich your life in many ways, especially psychologically. Friendship creates a very tangible effect on our state of health and well-being.
Personal Growth
Having friends outside of your relationship allows for personal growth and individuality, essential for maintaining a healthy and fulfilling relationship.
Your besties have a wealth of life experience, wisdom, skills, and knowledge that you benefit from simply due to the genuine friendship you all share, and mind you, just because you get into a relationship doesn’t mean your friends no longer care about helping you grow; they want to see you win regardless.
Even if they don’t support the relationship, they will always look out for your personal growth and development.
New Knowledge
Spending time with different people can help you gain new perspectives, learn about new interests and hobbies, and explore new parts of yourself and of life generally, which can prevent you from being one-sided and close-minded just because you are in a relationship.
Friendship Creates A Safe Space
The journey of relationship can be very demanding and exhausting, your life will change in new and unique ways. While this truth can be very exciting, it can also be pretty scary at the same time, and this is where friendship will come in;
- They serve as a strong support system.
- They help you to navigate through your new life experience and circumstances.
- They provide a trusted place and corner to vent.
- They serve as an understanding and empathetic listener.
- They encourage and affirm you
- They render a constructive backup for feedback and advice.
Friendship keeps you on the ground.
Friendship serves as a truthful process that helps to keep us intact, they serve as checks and balances to you through out the journey, our friends remind us that we were individuals before we met our partners or soulmate and that we have an identity of our own.
They also remind us of our core values and who we are. Our friends knock some sense into us when we start morphing our likes, dislikes, hobbies, personality traits, mannerisms, etc., into those of our partners just to satisfy them.
After getting into a relationship, most people do away with their personal likes and wants, interests, and cravings and embrace those of their partner. Still, friendship helps to call them to order.
Friendship breach codependency
Solely relying on a romantic partner for emotional support can exert undue pressure and strain the relationship.
Having friends fights off codependency and provides you both with the space you need from one another. You’re happier when you spend time with your friends, and your person benefits from the joy they have brought you.
Cultivating friendships outside the romantic sphere diminishes dependency on the partner to fulfill all emotional needs. This, in turn, eases the burden on the romantic partnership, fostering a healthier, more balanced dynamic.
Friendship Enhances Great Communication Skills
An Interaction with a friend or group of friends beyond romantic relationships tends to offer an opportunity to refine communication skills, and this practical communication skill is indispensable in all relationships.
Friendship apps provide a low-pressure environment to hone these skills. Enhanced communication abilities can translate into more open, honest, and effective communication within romantic partnerships.
Friendship Outside Relationship Promotes Trust And Security.
It’s a very common tradition that with friendship, most people feel safer and more secure than with their partners, especially their female counterparts, and I believe God designed life this way on purpose, i.e., giving our friends and our spouses distinctive and different roles to play in our lives.
Having friends outside a relationship can help foster trust between you and your partner. It will aid the sense of safety and security between you and your friends and of your partner.
Friendship Brings Joy
You probably have way more in common with your girlfriends than you do with your partner, and that’s not a bad thing. You’re happier when you spend time with your friends, and your person benefits from the joy they have brought you.
Throughout the years, you’ve probably formed many friendships based on shared interests, and that’s opened the door for so much laughter, engaging conversations, and incredible memories.
Friends Help To Ease Stress And Burden
You enjoy this sense of relief after spending quality time with friends. You feel lighter after some discussions because you’ve been able to release all unnecessary hurts, grudges, and burdens you have carried for a while.
After this, you can return to your mate refreshed and with clarity.
Final Thoughts
A romantic relationship is a unique and essential part of life, but it should not be your only source of companionship and support. Nurturing friendships outside of your relationship ensures a more balanced, fulfilling life.
By maintaining your individuality, expanding your emotional support system, and bringing fresh energy into your romantic partnership, you create a healthier, happier dynamic for yourself and your loved one.
So, cherish your relationship and invest time in the friendships that make you feel valued, supported, and inspired. After all, love comes in many forms, and friendships are an essential piece of the puzzle.
