02/24/2022
Are you aware of how you show up in your relationship?
Most of my clients are completely unaware of the ways they contribute to the dissatisfaction in their relationship when we start working together.
They love their partner, but acts of manipulation have become much more common than acts of love, egotistical love has replaced authentic love.
In the initial stage of a relationship, commonly known as the honeymoon stage, both partners are driven by a spike in hormones and naturally want to prioritize the other all the time. The relationship feels light, fun and easy.
Once you start shifting to the next stage and your hormones regulate themselves, challenges slowly start to arise. Whereas you initially thought you had found the perfect match, it now seems like your significant other has changed and developed some habits and patterns that you’re not very fond of. In reality, the person hasn’t changed—you were simply “blinded” by euphoric love.
When that shift happens or at any point in a relationship where needs aren’t being met, it can feel very unsettling. It’s hard to understand how something that felt so magical and easy can now feel challenging and out of our control.
So what do most do? We try to get that false sense of control back with acts of manipulation. While we’re not consciously trying to manipulate our significant other, we will try to control the relationship narrative in different ways either to obtain reassurance or to get an ego win (ie trying to prove a point for no other reason than to show our partner they were wrong or we were right).
Authentic love requires compassion, and compassion requires having a grip on our ego. Living in a very egotistical society, practicing compassion is something we have to learn and actively work on. In order to elevate our relationship, we need to be aware of how we show up and understand the ways in which we participate in harmful patterns.
Have you ever stopped to think about how you contribute to the dynamic in your relationship? Let me know in the comments! ⬇️⬇️