All couples argue. This is normal and an expected part of close relationships. How we conduct ourselves and how we respond to our partner can either enhance the relationship or put it at risk. Consider these guidelines for having constructive arguments with your partner:
After a divorce, you are faced with an unknown frontier. A shared future, once planned and full of possibilities for discovery and passion, is forever changed.
Perhaps your journey now feels scary and uncertain. You’re standing at the starting line again. Alone.
Do you feel as though you’ve lost a big piece of yourself or who you thought you were?
It is that feeling that makes self-care after a divorce so crucial for your mental and emotional healing.
When we commit to a relationship, we usually expect that our partner will have roughly the same level of emotional involvement that we have. Many of us hope to find a soul-mate, a partner who can share and understand our feelings and ways of thinking on an intensely personal level. Others don’t expect such an intense level of involvement and feel more comfortable maintaining personal privacy in the relationship.
Conflicts may arise when partners have different about how close they should become. One partner may feel emotionally stranded, feeling abandoned and craving more closeness, while the other partner may feel smothered or pressured into providing more of his or her emotional self than can possibly be given.
Drugs, alcohol, porn, food, gambling—addictions run the gamut. And unless you suffer from one, it can be difficult to know what you’re up against.
Use these five strategies to help your partner get their life back on track:
Only the lonely
Know the way I feel tonight
Only the lonely
Know this feeling ain’t right
– Roy Orbison
If you feel lonely, you’re not alone.
Loneliness is a subjective sense of isolation – a feeling of not being able to connect with other people, a sense of being apart. As humans, we feel the need to be with other people. We need to relate to others, to get involved in their lives, to work with them, and to express our emotions around other people. Our social needs are nearly as powerful as our other basic needs, like our needs for food, water, and shelter.
Researchers have studied the effects of birth order for nearly a century now, but learned only within the past few decades about the influence of birth order on our behavior and the nature of relationships with our partners. We now know that the strategies we learn in childhood for dealing with our parents and siblings has a lasting influence on our behavior, often in ways we barely recognize.
Do you find it easier to forgive others than yourself?
Are you able to accept others’ mistakes but not your own?
Practicing self-compassion can actually be very difficult. This is especially true if you learned as a child to care more about others, or if you have a hard time forgiving yourself.
Sex and sexual desire is a key part of many relationships. It provides a certain aspect of intimacy.
So, what happens when your partner’s sex drive differs from yours?
First, this doesn’t have to be an obstacle. Consider these tips to help you cope with this difference and still maintaining a healthy relationship.
Clearly, whenever you’ve been cheated on, there are many feelings that arise.
However, some of these emotions could be based on myths about those who cheat. And that can cause you to make decisions based on faulty information.
If you are trying to cope with a partner’s infidelity, get the facts and reject the myths.
Living with social anxiety and shyness can be difficult in our modern world.
Unless you live in a remote cabin, you may be interacting with people all the time. Plus, there are social situations that you may be obligated to attend (such as meetings or a work party) that require human interaction.
However, all hope is not lost. There are ways that you can conquer your social anxiety and lessen your stress without becoming a hermit.
Consider these 7 tips:
