How does relational growth looks like: Expert shares insights

Inner growth is a slow process. It takes large amounts of work on oneself and the fact of choosing oneself before anything else leads to growth. It first happens internally and then slowly shows up externally as well. Psychotherapist Emily H Sanders addressed relational growth and how it shows up in people and in their behaviors in her latest Instagram post. Emily wrote, “As you grow the way you show up in relationships will start to gradually change; the way you interact with and feel around others starts to shift little by little.” Emily further added that for relational growth, one must expand in self-awareness, self-acceptance, quality of relationships and empathy.

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Emily further noted down several instances that can portray relational growth in a person. They are as follows:

Sharing: Relational growth shows up in people when they feel safe to share themselves and their emotions with people, they consider safe. It means they no longer are scared of letting themselves be vulnerable.

Pretense: We often pretend with people who hurt us. Growth also means no more of pretense in case of being hurt. It also means letting the other person know that they have affected us in a negative way.

Ask: As we grow up, we put forward our needs, expectations and wants upfront. We no longer feel the need of waiting for others to magically find out or read our minds. We unapologetically put forward our expectations on the table.

Aware: Being self-aware also means becoming aware of our own toxic patterns. We all carry a bit of pattern and trauma in us which lead to certain behaviors. Growing up means knowing our oen toxic traits and figuring out ways to prevent them from impacting others.

Feelings: As we grow up, we start validating and making room for other’s emotions as wwell. We learn to value feelings and create space for others to completely express themselves without having any inhibitions.

Control: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. As we grow up, we let go the urge to control what others may think about us.