Many of us form relationships without truly evaluating how they impact our lives. They often arise out of convenience or transactions, yet we hardly pause to consider who we're really in bed with.
We can get so blindsided by what we really want that we miss what we should really see. And in relationships, not many people want to do the real work of evaluating the kinds they keep, their values, and the people they keep around. Soner or later anyway, everything unfolds by itself, but hopefully not when it's too late.
How exactly is the relationship serving you? It's not all about what you gain in the partnerships or friendships you keep, but also how both parties influence themselves. What habits or traits are you picking up from these relationships? I think, at some point in regular communication and interactions, you just pick up one or two things. They either help you grow or just degrade you slowly.
Our interactions with others often reveal deeper truths. For instance, I once observed how loyal, kind, and trustworthy a friend was to her roommate and people she called her friends that I fully realised that what she had with me was pretty much the same with other people. On the contrary, another friend I had would always pick up one fight or the other with someone, one way or another, and even talk about them in their backs. If you're always talking about other people and how bad they are, you're probably going to do the same about me someday, if you already aren't.
If a relationship is dragging you down, consider letting it go. The ones that are healthy, invest in them and see how to better keep them flourishing. Know who you're in bed with. As the year draws close to an end, take a moment to reflect: Who are you in bed with, and how are they shaping the person you're becoming?
