Ever felt like your best friend is more than just a best friend, but you both seem to not have any romantic feelings for each other nor are you physically attracted to one another. Yet for some reason, it feels like the title “best friend” does not sum up your relationship with that particular best friend.
If you’ve felt this way, it’s most likely that you have found your platonic soulmate! (a.k.a. A healthy platonic relationship) These kinds of friendships are very similar to healthy romantic relationships, wherein many of the traits of a healthy romantic relationship are found/observed, but romance is nowhere to be seen or felt. This type of relationship was first introduced by Plato by concluding that love is more than just feelings of lust, as it is more intellectual and emotional than romantic or sexual.
Recognizing if you and your best friend have this kind of relationship does not affect your relationship overall, but knowing if you are platonic soulmates with your best friend allows you to see them in a light where you can value them even more.
Sign 1: Mutual Respect
Being able to tell where your boundaries lie in any relationship is crucial for its success, being able to respect each other mutually without breaking a sweat indicates that your friendship is most likely very healthy. This is a strong sign that you and your friend may be platonic soulmates, as it does not take long for either of you to adjust to one another’s likes and dislikes.
Sign 2: Clear Boundaries
Speaking of boundaries, a strong platonic relationship has clear, yet rarely spoken of, boundaries. It’s like you already know that this person does not like or likes something which is why you go for or avoid that something even talking it over with the other person. Having this level of understanding of each other is another strong indicator of a healthy platonic relationship and usually says that you’ve found your platonic soulmates. ”Usually” because romantic relationships have this the most.
Sign 3: Open Communication
Open communication is at the core of every successful relationship, whether it be platonic or romantic. It is because being able to openly communicate with your friends or your partner means that you are comfortable with them even when talking about extremely sensitive topics; open communication shows that a high level of trust has been established, which, in turn, helps improve the relationship even more.
Sign 4: Emotional Support
In a very short description, you both are each other’s cheerleaders. This means that if either of you are feeling down, or need confidence to do something, neither will hesitate to give the best cheers and encouragements to the other. This is rather a weak indicator if someone’s your platonic soulmate since most healthy relationships have this, but it is still a good one since it shows that each person in the relationship is concerned with the other.
Sign 5: Honesty and Trust
Any relationship MUST have honesty and trust for it to flourish, in a healthy platonic relationship these two are a given. And although your platonic soulmate might still opt to pull pranks on you, you know that if you need backup or someone to share something sensitive, they will respond within a moment’s notice and will have their ears open to what you have to say and their lips vault-locked with those sensitive secrets.
Sign 6: Reciprocal
Healthy platonic relationships, and any relationship for that matter, have both parties as the giver and receiver, no one is the only one who receives while the other is the only one who gives, it’s a two-way street and both parties are on equal footing.
Sign 7: Shared Interests
It is impossible to have someone as a platonic soulmate and not have shared interests, it’s similar to saying that you’ll go online chatting without the internet! Sure you may differ in one area or two because you are not clones of each other, but a vast majority of your interests are so similar that you might as well be clones!
Sign 8: Resolving conflicts
No relationship does not have a conflict every once in a while, at the end of the day you are still both “individuals” with differing perspectives on particular matters. But if you are platonic soulmates, you know how to effectively navigate through these difficult instances, it may not be that easy, but you know each other well enough to resolve these conflicts properly.
Sign 9: No Jealousy or Possessiveness
We do not mean that there is absolute “no jealousy or possessiveness” After all we may still feel jealous about something our best friend may have or be possessive of them when someone else tries to make them their own best friend, but platonic soulmates experience and healthily deal with these feelings. In other words, platonic soulmates do not overreact.
Sign 10: Okay with Personal Growth
Lastly, platonic soulmates are okay with each other’s personal growth, and will be the first ones to cheer their other half for any achievement they achieved, and will be the first ones to offer their shoulder after a crushing defeat.
Conclusion
After all the indicators we’ve pointed out, you might realize that your best friend is indeed your platonic soulmate! But if this is not the case for you do not lose heart, platonic soulmates or not your friends are worth all the appreciation and love they get from you, as well as you are also worth their love and appreciation. Creating a strong bond between your friends is far more worth it than having a singular best best friend. And who knows, even though you might not have a platonic soulmate you’ve instead got platonic soulmates. The more the merrier!
REFERENCES:
Leave a Reply