Maintaining a healthy balance in romantic relationships can be tricky. Relationships require effort and participation from all parties involved and when attempting to have equality within your relationship, steps need to be taken. Here are some suggestions for how you can maintain your equilibrium with your significant other.
- Be clear with your needs from day one. Balance starts from the get-go in relationships, and something that’s key in achieving and maintaining balance is being clear with your partner about what your needs are and listening to their needs as well. We’re all different and we all need different things, so if we don’t take the time to learn about one another, there could be a serious imbalance from the beginning. That’s not a good foundation on which to build a healthy relationship. If you need a lot of quality time with your partner or serious talks about your future, make sure they’re aware. Listen to what’s important to them as well that way you can stay on the same page emotionally.
- Be flexible. While it’s important to have your needs heard and met, it’s equally important to remember that relationships require compromise in order to work and be successful. There will be times when you and your partner will disagree and there won’t be a total common ground that you can find. You may want to rework what you want in order to better fit what your partner wants. That doesn’t mean that you should be the one compromising or bending every time. It’s all about give and take. It’s just important to realize that you don’t have to have it your way all of the time and seeing your partner happy might just be more important to you than getting what you want.
- Fight fair. Fighting fair is so important in order to maintain balance in relationships. You’re going to get into a disagreement or an argument at some point. It’s completely inevitable, but it’s essential that you know how to fight fairly. When you’re having a discussion with your partner, keep the focus on the matter at hand. Don’t try to dredge up the past, point out flaws of theirs that have nothing to do with the current situation, or put all of the blame on them. Speak calmly and rationally, remember to always come from a place of love, and don’t hold grudges.
- Don’t rely on unsolicited advice. If you and your partner are struggling in some area of your relationship, it’s only natural that you’d want to seek advice from your friends or family. It’s great to get words of wisdom from people that you trust. However, you have to remember to take every bit of advice you get with a grain of salt. The thing is that every relationship is so different and the opinions of one person based on their relationship are not going to perfectly fit your relationship. Keep that in mind when you seek advice and don’t let what others say dictate the decisions you make about your relationship.
- Give as much as you get. Similar to compromising, giving and getting are essential to maintaining balance in relationships. If you have a partner who is constantly going above and beyond to make you feel special and do sweet things for you, you should definitely meet them halfway and go out of your way to do the same for them. It’s true that a good partner won’t do nice things with the expectation of getting anything back from you. However, if you do have a partner who’s constantly giving and you don’t necessarily give back to them very often, it’s only a matter of time before they start to grow resentful and hurt. Make it an equal relationship of giving and getting.
- Communicate. Communicating well and often is key to maintaining balance in your relationship. Talk about everything with your partner whether it’s things that are making you happy or things that are upsetting or stressing you. Don’t expect them to read your mind. Express it to them and trust that they’ll listen and care.
- Control your temper. If you’re someone who struggles with a snap temper or you’re maybe a little hot-headed, it’s important to rein that in when you’re discussing things with your partner. It’s honestly important for adult life in general, relationship or not, but it’s crucial to control your anger within your relationship. You don’t want small things being blown out of proportion simply because you had a moment. You will almost always regret it after the fact.
- Be honest with each other. Honesty is so important for relationships and when you’re working to maintain balance, it’s absolutely crucial. Don’t ever be afraid to be truthful with your partner about how you’re feeling and what’s going on. If you hide things or cover up your emotions, it can cause serious problems with your relationship and it can be incredibly stressful for you to withhold. Your partner loves you and if they want the two of you to have a healthy and successful relationship, they would never fault you for being honest with them.
