What are Relationships ? Types of Relationships and their meanings

In our daily life, we speak about relationships frequently—like family relationships, romantic relationships, marital relationships, business relationships, etc. But have you asked yourself what the true meaning of the term "relationship" is? In this article, I will not only discuss the true meaning of relationships, but I will also discuss different types of relationships and the meaning of each of them.

What is the meaning of relationships?

Though I don't consider myself a relationship expert, according to my observations and daily life experience, I must say a relationship is a bond between two or more people. It is a known fact that, in our daily life, there are different types of bonding; thus, each type of bonding can be easily identified as each type of relationship. 

Many people define a relationship as a deal between two or more people, but a deal can also be considered as a bond in many cases. You may say the word "deal" sounds like something transactional or a materialistic bond, and you are not wrong. In the real world, deals are made for transactional purposes or for deciding the shares of duties or resources between two or more people. But

still, a deal is a kind of relationship, which may be termed a "business relationship" or any such relationship that is devoid of any emotional attachment.

Though deals can be termed as certain types of relationships, it is also true there are many other types of relationships that are built on various types of emotional factors like trust, feelings, empathy, etc. Below, I will discuss some of these types of relationships in short.

Relationships built on trust 

Trust means depending on someone without any fear of rejection, dejection, mental & physical harm, anxiety, etc. This dependence is a sort of feeling. This feeling grows due to confidence gathered from someone. 

For example, a baby after taking birth quickly identifies his/her mother and confidently hugs her or grabs her hands or neck. Why? Just after birth, the mother affectionately smiles and pulls her baby closer, which induces a sense of confidence and safety in the baby's mind. These activities foster the feeling of trust, and that's how a baby establishes a relationship of trust with their mother immediately after birth. Similarly, within a day or two, the baby also starts to trust his/her father just after he expresses his affection and care.

Similarly, a true romantic relationship between two people is built on confidence and trust, which each person keeps in the other. Not only romantic relationships, but also relationships between old friends are built on trust.

Relationships built on feelings 

Just like trust, relationships built on feelings also come from a sense of confidence and safety. However, care and kindness should also be there to help increase the feelings. Some relationships of emotional attachments can't be built if there is no feeling. For example, a romantic relationship is not only built on trust but also on feelings that grow from care and kindness. 

It is also true that some feelings grow in many people's hearts even after not receiving any care or kindness. However, relationships built on such feelings are very few in number. For example, the relationship between a man and a cat. The cat will love you and show you kindness if you are affectionate to it, but it can't take care of you like a human. But still, you two have a relationship.

Relationships built on empathy 

Empathy is a kind of emotion that is expressed to feel the emotional state of other people. This is a very complex emotion, and not every person possesses it. Sometimes, this type of emotion can take part in creating a relationship. For example, if you feel empathy for a poor kid and gradually start to dream that you will adopt him/her and make his/her life successful, that is exactly how you are planning to create a relationship with that kid. This relationship will be built purely from empathy. 

Relationships built on mutual interests or Business Relationships 

As this subheading suggests, these relationships are built on mutual interests. In real life, these interests are materialistic and transactional, and are devoid of any emotions and feelings.

Business deals, purchase deeds, contracts, banking with customers, etc., can be considered as a few examples. 

In this article, I have discussed the definition of relationships and the meaning of each type of relationship. I have tried to discuss them elaborately. Now, in the next few articles, I will discuss various issues regarding relationships based on emotional attachments, monogamous relationships, polygamous relationships, problems & solutions to various issues of modern-day romantic relationships, and a lot more.