Care about your significant other? Enjoy when you have a healthy attitude towards life? Want a healthy, lasting relationship? Get away from your partner every once and a while.
What? Yeah, you heard me right. Of course, some relationships are just doomed from the get-go, and you should never, ever blame yourself for someone else’s faults or vices. People can simply be toxic, and it’s not your job to change them. In fact, it’s your job to get away from them because those kinds of relationships need to end. In circumstances like those, no re-evaluation or personal adjustments are needed. Just get out of there. Please.
But, how about those relationships where two people are comfortable, happy and in love? I’m sure you have seen it before; those relationships that almost make you ill because the two people are just so good for each other? It’s hard to imagine anything ever going wrong.
But, newsflash; no pairing is perfect. Even the healthiest of partnerships have their underlying problems. They can have arguments; ones that can be downright nasty, too. Hurtful. Mean. Potentially relationship-ending.
So, how do people make it work? Obviously, a lot of us are evidence of long, happy relationships. So, a positive outcome is possible, no matter how unrealistic it might seem in an anger-filled moment.
The trick? Space. Alone time. You, your thoughts and breathing room.
Everyone needs time for themselves. Although you might want to spend every waking moment with your SO, being around each other for extended periods of time is not healthy. When you latch on to a person and refuse to let go, you lose your sense of individuality and become a weird hybrid of your partner. You become dependent, then jealousy enters the mix and tells you to be upset when bae makes plans without you. Then, a wild argument appears! Now the whole night is ruined and your partner thinks you’ve lost your mind. Great.
To ensure that that scenario doesn’t happen, each person involved in a relationship needs to make it a priority that their obsession with their SO doesn’t consume their life. If you can’t remember the last time you worked at your hobby, hung out with friends or did something simply because you enjoy it, you may want to revisit your relationship’s dynamics.
Don’t let it get to the point where you are suffocating (or feel suffocated by) your partner. Potential isolation from people, activities, etc. is common. But it is very, very dangerous if you want your relationship to flourish.
Instead, set aside some ‘you’ time. Get out. Turn off your phone and just enjoy the things you do and the people you do them with. It’s okay to choose your friends over your partner every now and again. Then, when you are reunited again, you will enjoy each other’s company all that much more.
Photo credits: Cover image, 1, 2, 3