How To Maintain Relationships With Your Loved Ones

Last week when I was surfing Facebook, I saw the profile of Neeta. My friend, or I would say my ex friend. Life doesn’t provide both of us enough time to catch up with each other. I saw that she updated the work space in her profile as ‘Assistant Manager’. Promotion obviously was a big reason enough to congratulate her. I called her up and as the course of conversation started, I came to know that I wasn’t the only one who have lost touch with her. The same has happened to her school friends, college friends. The only people she talks to are her colleagues, that too because she sees them on a day to day basis. Obviously working for more than fourteen hours a day doesn’t leave much time to rekindle old friendships. Even her parents nag about her lack of time and she has started having regular fights with her boyfriend too.

The world has changed radically. We have whole lot of things that have become our priorities. Be it work, passions, hobbies, all this needs time. Especially since the concept of MNC’s introduced, people are slogging day and night each day to get their dreams fulfilled.  In Neeta’s case, the culprit was time, in other cases, the culprits can be anything ranging from ignorance to self obsession to work load, stress, lust for money and what not!

I would like to throw some mud on social media too now. Those networking sites have even entered our bedrooms. Imagine Romeo and Juliet in today’s time. They would have been sharing Facebook pokes!

In all this lucrative mess that we have entered, relationships are completely ignored. I just had to write this post, it is about how you can maintain a healthy relationship with your loved ones. Follow these five easy tips and you would never have a dull day! In the end all that matters are the people who are by your side.

How to keep relationships alive with your busy schedule

1) Small things count:

You can’t stay with the people you love all the time but you could at least do little things for them, such as cook a meal for your kids when you have time, wake up your husband in a naughty way, you call up your boyfriend as the first thing in the morning and have a romantic conversation (trust me, it helps to lighten up the mood and gives an excellent kickstart to the day) or give a surprise visit to your best friend or make bed tea for your parents. These things and pretty simple and small yet these are important. Like I have read somewhere, work on small things and the bigger ones will eventually fall into place. Start working on those small things now to make life more pleasant for you and the people around you.

2) Surprises:

Who amongst you all wouldn’t like if your best friend sent you a bouquet of your favourite flowers on the first day of your work? My favourite flowers are daisies these days (I am writing it here so that my best friend takes the hint!) Who’s boyfriend would mind receiving a big bottle of his favourite drink as a thank you gesture by his girlfriend as he treated her exceptionally well last night? And which kid would mind seeing a new toy next to his bed as soon as he wakes up? So surprises are like that! They have the most positive effect ever. They can light up someone’s day, make the smiles brighter or even give them another reason to adore you or cuddle you to bits!

3) Never forget the important days of their lives

Nobody would like to have a friend, daughter, husband, wife, mom, son, boyfriend, girlfriend or anybody close to them who forget their birthday or anniversaries or other important events such as their dog’s birthday or her doll’s wedding date (I know a kid who made me learn the date for her doll’s wedding. Cute, isn’t it?) Anyways, if you have a ghajini memory like me then God bless you! You could atleast save those important dates in your phone that your face stares at all day long or mark them on that big calendar that is just near your study table. It’s not important that how you remember the dates. More important is the fact that you wished them on those days which mean a lot to them.

• Read: What to do if he forgets your anniversary

4)If you can, then  you should:

You might not be around every evening but today when you are, why not help your mother with the dishes? You might not be at home all the time but when you are today, why not take your ignored dog out for a walk? Or why not tell stories to your kids because you came back early today?  So there are time when you are not able to do things but when you are able to do them, make sure you DO them! Such things don’t only matter a lot but also are considered special and such things have the power to build relationships.

5) Make each moment worthy:

A half an hour spent with your best friend in chatters, gossips, shopping and giggles is a lot better than a day spent with your best friend lying lifelessly on your sofa tweeting from your iphone and having almost zero conversations. You might have less time but make sure that whatever time you have with them is spent to its fullest, lived to its fullest and enjoyed to its fullest.

Remember no matter how much you earn, having someone who gifts you a little present means a lot. No matter how brilliant biceps you have got after those exhausting sessions at gym, showing those and making your best friend jealous is a priceless thing. No matter how many pretty dresses you have in your cupboard, you can’t go everywhere alone wearing them. Relationships are precious, don’t lose them!