Are you in a relationship? Good relationships help you to grow as a person and find mutual happiness, but sometimes relationships can sour and negatively affect both partners.
Check out the 10 things you should never sacrifice in your relationship.
1. Your Happiness
Your partner should bring happiness and joy to your life, rather than dragging you down and making you feel sad. If your partner makes you feel down about yourself or your life, then you are no longer in a healthy relationship. Your partner won’t always be in a great mood, but if they are intentionally hurting you, you need to let them go. They need to work on themselves before they can have a healthy relationship.
2. Your Fun
Do you laugh with your partner and try new things together? While it is normal to have disagreements, your relationship should mostly be happy and fun. It is important to enjoy your life with your partner and your friends, and your partner should understand and respect that.
3. Your Freedom
In a healthy relationship, you should be able to go out and enjoy yourself without your partner getting annoyed or worried. Possessive behavior is normally an indicator of insecurity, and insecurity is their personal problem that you cannot fix. A healthy and stable relationship involves partners spending time together and time alone.
4. Your Inner Peace
It is important to retain your inner peace for your own happiness. If your partner makes you feel anxious, angry, or nervous, you may find yourself feeling depressed or withdrawn. If you are regularly fighting with your partner, it’s time to ask yourself why — is there an on-going issue in the relationship? Can you make each other happy? Can the problem be solved?
5. Your Experiences
Life is exciting. Throughout your life, you will have brilliant experiences that will make you wiser, happier, and more at peace with yourself. If your partner is unwilling to try new things, and holds you back from trying them, you may struggle to stay happy. An emotionally stable partner will encourage you to experience new things and to have fun.
6. Your Personality
Your personality is who you are, and the right person will love your personality above all. In a happy relationship, neither partner would want to change each other’s personalities because they love each other for who they are.
Of course, compromise is normal and healthy, but don’t be with someone who tries to change your personality – it could mean they don’t love you for you.
7. Your Other Relationships
At the beginning of a relationship, many people go through a honeymoon period — a time of excitement, infatuation, and a desire to be around each other all the time. However, if you’ve been together for a few months and you still rarely see your friends or family, this could indicate possessive behavior. It is important to have lots of healthy relationships in your life, and being too dependent on your partner is often unhealthy.
8. Your Feelings
A big part of a healthy relationship is respect: both partners should truly listen to each other and try to understand their partner’s feelings and opinions without judgement. If you feel like your partner doesn’t consider your feelings, ask yourself these questions: do I consider my partner’s feelings? Why don’t they consider mine? Can we change this?
9. Your Dreams
A good relationship is a partnership — both people support each other every step of the way. It is normal to have different dreams, but you should still be cheering each other along. Love is wanting someone to experience joy and happiness. What you want out of life is often a big part of who you are, and it is important that your relationship supports your dreams.
10. Your Beliefs
Your beliefs are important to you, and no one in your life should try to change your religion or beliefs. While your partner doesn’t have to believe in the same things as you, they should respect your values.
What else you should never sacrifice in a relationship? Comment with your ideas below!
Featured photo credit: Grace and Steve / Nathan O’Nions via flickr.com
