World-renowned psychologist Chris Peterson was once asked if he could sum up decades of positive psychology research, and he said, “Other people matter.” It was his way of emphasizing how important relationships and connection with others are to your happiness and well-being.

I thought about Peterson’s words early last month when I received some tough news of my own right before I left for a business trip. Since I own my own business, I don’t take much time off, but that’s just what I did in order to recover. The biggest thing that helped me bounce back effectively was that I had surrounded myself with great people — people I trust.

Not everyone in my family or in my circle of friends knew what was going on, and I strategically picked certain people to share this information with; people with whom I enjoy a different type of connection — a high-quality connection.

High-quality relationships are the gold standard of connection, and researcher Jane Dutton cites four ways to make your relationships more high-quality:

1. Respectfully engage others by communicating supportively and being an effective listener.

2. Facilitate another person’s success with guidance, recognition and support.

3. Build trust, which can be done by relying on another person to follow through on projects and other commitments.

4. Have moments of play. Play evokes positive emotions and is often associated with creativity and innovation.

[Read: How to Be a Good Listener .]

The number of people who say they have no one with whom to discuss important matters has nearly tripled in the past 30 years. That statistic troubles me, and I think it’s evidence of the fact that we’re living further apart from our families and loved ones and spending way to much time on our devices.

Having good connections with others provides a whole host of health and wellness benefits. Close relationships give you the opportunity to love and be loved; they can be a source of fun, and laughter is a great stress reliever; and relationships influence your emotional well-being and development.

One of my favorite ways to build stronger connections with others is a technique called Active Constructive Responding. When a co-worker or family member approaches you with a problem, how do you respond? Like many people, you probably suggest pulling up a chair, or you drop what you’re doing and listen. But how do you respond when those same people share good news with you? Does the good news grab your focus and attention like the bad news does? Research tells us it should. How you respond to a person’s good news is as important for the health of the relationship as how you respond to bad news.

[Read: 10 Tips to Lighten Up and Laugh .]

Responding in an active and constructive way means you help the sharer of the good news relive it by showing authentic interest and asking questions. This style actually benefits both the sharer and the responder because it generates positive emotions; as a result, both people walk away from the conversation feeling better.

Active constructive responding takes just a minute or two, but the relationship payoff is huge. If you support other people when they share good news with you, they’ll be more likely to come to you with bad news because you’ve built up a bank of trust (and remember how important trust is to building those high-quality relationships). That is vital in your role as a manager at work or as a parent. If you’re managing a group of people, you depend on your associates and employees to tell you when things aren’t going well. As a parent, you want to know when your kids have concerns. And I can tell you from experience, once you’re off their list as a person to approach with good news, you’ll be off their list as a person they can trust with bad news.

[Read: 14 Simple Ways to Be Happier and Healthier in 2014 .]

The topic of connection reminds me of the words of a great philosopher, comedian George Carlin. He said, “The paradox of our time in history is that we have taller buildings but shorter tempers; wider freeways, but narrower viewpoints. We spend more but have less; we buy more, but enjoy less. We have bigger houses and smaller families, more conveniences, but less time … We have multiplied our possessions, but reduced our values. We talk too much, love too seldom and hate too often. We’ve learned how to make a living, but not a life. We’ve added years to life but not life to years. We’ve been all the way to the moon and back, but have trouble crossing the street to meet a new neighbor.”

Here is my challenge to you: Pick one relationship you want to improve, and set a specific goal in the coming month to make it more high-quality. Please let me know how it goes!

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Why Relationships are Crucial to Your Health and Happiness originally appeared on usnews.com