With Valentine’s Day approaching quickly, we often tend to associate this holiday and its events with the color red – red decorations, icing, and more.
In 2019, the Northwest Advocacy Foundation (NAF), a Seattle non-profit on legal assistance to low-income families, created a list of the most common red flags individuals should spot-and-stop in relationships, whether it be there own or one they are witnessing. Their message to the general public was to help others, and even sometimes ones own self, from participating in detrimental and derailing relationships; helping others spot overlooked, and often times romanticized, dangerous actions.
During these times, it can be difficult to decipher what is labeled a “healthy relationship” due to gaslighting, history’s continuation of societal structural and institutionalized gender inequalities, and more. To combat this confusion, those of us in Goose Creek Consulting have decided to highlight a more positive aspect of Valentine’s Day – observing the healthy and positive qualities individuals should be looking for in a partner. This time we are drawing on a resource from Give an Hour, a non-profit that helps provide therapy to those who trauma during military service, being a victim of crime, or living through a natural disaster, often result in emotional pain and suffering.
These are positive attributes that individuals should not only look for in a relationship but they themselves should bring themselves to highlight that a relationship should meant to be to seek further happiness with an individual, rather than that individual being your only source of happiness.
The signs of a great relationship are just as important to highlight as the warning signs. As Friedrich Nietzsche stated, “There is always some madness in love. But there is always some reason in madness” and a good goal is to help find individuals find, the logical reason to love.
