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Posts Tagged ‘Relationship’

Take it slow

I am 20 years old and last year i had my first broke up with my first love. We were together for 3 years but we ended it because it just wasn’t working anymore. Since the break up we have become happier better people and actually get along like we used to and are much closer than we were before. The thing is, when we broke up we kept seeing eachother which only made it harder as we fell into the patterns of being a “couple” again. This wasnt very good because he was spending time kissing and cuddling me but going out and being with other girls. I ended that because I was only getting hurt in the process and holding on to someone that obvious didnt want just me anymore. After 3 months of both of us being single we are sort of together again. we have decided to take things slow and he says he wants to be good to me. So far he has, he has been wonderful and faithful and our love relationship is better than ever. My only question is will we get back together officially? will he make commitment to being with just me? because right now im not his gf and hes not my bf but i want him to be. for the past 2 months we’ve been spending all our free time together whether its day or night, we have a sexual relationship, he brings me flowers when im sick, everything is great but we arent officially together and it really bothers me. I’ve brought it up with him and hes says he loves how we are now and that taking it slow has been good for us but to me Im just scared im going to get hurt again. I kind of feel like hes keeping his options open, why else do u not make commitment when everything just works? Im confused, I feel that he wants only me but at the same time he doesnt want to make commitment. We’ve been ‘taking it slow’ for 2 months now, am I moving too fast by wanting to get back together?

- Ash

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Distance of Beauty

If the answer of the question “why marriage is love’s tomb” is the vanishing of the feeling to respect love, then how are we going to avoid it?

If a romantic love is high quality, then it will surely turn to a long lasting bond of the couple and the main quality of the feeling is the mutual understanding, mutual trust and the privity of their way of thinking. The couple will have a sense of security and that of sharing the happiness and sadness together. They will feel that they are tied to each other and will never part in their life and that they will face all difficulties together. They will deeply miss each other whenever one is away from the other one.

How are we going to protect this great love? The answer is to keep a right distance, intimate while distant. After marriage, two persons are still individual persons, and need to be respected as individual persons, respecting his personality, his freedom; two persons are still two separate individuals and are not able to become one. Unfortunately, people often get it wrong and take for granted that the couple will be one and that both should keep pace with each other and then the conflicts are never ending.

In fact, family is supposed to become an intimate space for an individual to freely grow and provide the room for love to continue growing. The love living in such a mutually respectful and trustful ambiance will then not be distorted. The zero distance, freedom and being forced to keep pace with each other make the couple look so surfacely close to each other but actually create the least trustful ambiance between two persons. Anyone can be spoiled or compelled to be flunky without distance. In a marriage, the cultivation and proper limits are also necessary, otherwise the couple will finally be separated.

The distance also has its aesthetic sense. The love was priceless, but lack of enough distance, its merit is ruined.

Distance is not only the premise to bring beauty, but also can keep the vitality of love. Love is the attraction, appreciation and pursuit between two persons, therefore, after marriage, love still requires the mutual attraction, pursuit, appreciation and being relishable. If both get bored and find nothing to relish, even if live together, such state is not love anymore.

In a marriage, both sides must always regard the other one as an individual being, a goal that needs to constantly pursue and no one is able to get and possess another one once and forever. As long as he is excellent, if you take for granted that you have possessed him once and forever, not pursuing him anymore and that he is not important anymore, not respecting and appreciating him anymore, then some day, he will probably fly away; or both find it meaningless, then still you will finally be separated, or together be changed to boring persons by this meaningless marriage life. A good marriage is supposed to always keep love in imperfect tense and the two persons must understand that love is not yet fulfilled, that it needs to continue growing and that each is supposed to continue respecting the other one as an individual person and continue to win the other one’s heart by action.

Now comes to the question “how are we going to keep the distance?” That is, there is supposed to be a mutual non-interference area. Spiritually, each has his own space and time to be alone. Every spiritual person has the need to be alone sometimes. Or he is supposed to have the right to write his personal diary for himself only and he can have his own secret.

On the other hand, that is, not to interfere with the other one’s social networking. The couple can have common friends, however, each can also have his own friend; perhaps one doesn’t like some of the other one’s friends, but one had better not interfere with this, because the couple are two individual persons, there could be difference in terms of choosing friends, which is reasonable. This also applies to making friends with opposite sex, as long as the couple obey the rule. There are certainly rules and without rules, marriage is impossible to exist and keep.

There is no way to insure marriage absolutely and perfectly secure and among all the solutions, being forced to bind to each other is the worst solution and as a result, or the couple pay their way to keep the meaningless marriage without vitality, or one or both are not willing to be stuck in the boring life and result in separation. Compared with these two results, although the relatively free way of dealing with marriage has a certain risk, in general, it can strengthen the marriage and probably keep it high quality.

In a marriage, one is supposed to respect the other one’s privacy, on the other hand, the actual privacy is supposed to be limited. Privacy has its trait, that is, it is willing to open to those who respect it. Human being is actually not willing to hold out on too much and the more you respect his privacy, the more you trust him, the more he is willing to open to you, thus, the less the actual privacy there will be. On the contrary, if you forbid his privacy, not respecting his privacy and ask him to absolutely be honest to you, then this will result in the distrustful ambience, and even force the other one to cheat and tell the lies.

Apart from the distance, love also requires you to cherish it. When you set the other one free, you should not abuse the freedom, but have your self-discipline. A good love relationship is supposed not to confine the other one’s freedom based on your trust and at the same time not to abuse your own freedom based on your will to cherish.

Keep distance, set free, don’t abuse freedom and are those enough? What if there is problem? – Forgiving. Forgiving is a way of cherishing. Real life’s love with certain regrets is the real love between real men and women. Of course, this doesn’t mean since you would forgive me, I then intend to break the rule; what if she wouldn’t forgive you? You can never tell before it happens and there should not be a single thought by luck. What’s more, you should never revenge, just because he broke the rule once, you then also break the rule, then the revenge circle will never end and will finally result in separation. Of course, this kind of incidents should avoid and should only happen once or twice, that is, rarely, otherwise, even the most forgiving person cannot believe in this love, or has the reason to doubt about whether this casanova has the ability to be a spouse.

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Respect Love

There are men and women who were being in love and when finally get married, they find love is already gone. As a result of getting married, love vanished. That’s what we see on the surface.

Schopenhauer believes that the purpose of love is to get married and the purpose of marriage is to have children. Therefore, love basically is a method and so is the marriage; when the goal is achieved, the method can naturally be ignored. What Schopenhauer wanted to say is “the child is love’s grave”. Schopenhauer tried to see the essence, but he wasn’t able to fully see through the surface and he was on the halfway.

Why is marriage love’s grave? One theory believes when people get married, the spatial distance is shortened and the husband and wife will expose their shortcomings hidden before. The notice of the other one’s shortcomings makes love vanished. Therefore the marriage is love’s grave.

Another theory reveals that two person’s different custom caused the failure of the marriage. Before marriage, the couple was not living together, even if they sometimes stay together. Their habits and custom will not conflict with each other too much. However, when they get married, this difference will possibly conflict with each other, until love finally withers away.

The third theory was called as “Boring”. It believes that people in love are so romantic, but when get married, they have to worry about the daily necessities. Train train quotidian is how so boring. Love is suffered from this kind of boring daily life.

Apart from the “Shortcoming Exposure”, “Custom Conflict” as well as “Boring” theories, there might be other explanations to answer why marriage is love’s grave. Nevertheless, these explanations are surface and they don’t reflect the essence of the problem. The “Custom”, “Shortcomings” and “Boring” are all superficial phenomena and what we can see; there is deeper reason hidden behind.

Why do these explanations only see the superficial phenomenon? This is because men and women in love will possibly fall in love with the other one’s shortcomings, therefore, the “Shortcoming Exposure” will be essentially unsustainable; Similarly, men and women in love will possibly be together because of the different custom and will continue to love each other, which also explains that the “Custom Conflict” will not be tenable; there are also many examples that people love each other in boring environments and love makes the boring life so charming.

Actually the very reason that love vanished is the vanishing of the feeling to respect love. Marriage directly caused the vanishing of this feeling. The vanishing of this feeling can start from one side, or both sides at the same time. The feeling to respect love refers to the feeling that one side “respects” the other one; this “Respect” is not a formula, but an affirmation of the other one’s “Love Value”.

The immediate consequence of marriage is the vanishing of the feeling to respect love. When living together, a couple find it unnecessary to surfacely respect the other one. The politeness is not necessary, the “Appreciation” (this feeling is from heart, but not surface) will therefore also vanish and so will the sacred feeling; this finally causes the vanishing of the feeling to respect love.

What perhaps needs to explain is that, the vanishing of the feeling to respect love might be brought by different “blasting fuses” in different families. In some family it might be due to the “Shortcoming Exposure”, in another family it might be the “Custom Conflict”, or in another family it might be “Monotonous and Boring”. Although in different families the “blasting fuses” might be totally different, they will lead to the vanishing of the feeling to respect love.

Without the feeling to respect love, love no longer exists. As for the “Shortcoming Exposure”, “Personality and Custom’s Differences”, “Life’s Boredom” or so on, it is rather an excuse than a kind of “blasting fuse” to lead to the vanishing of love, an excuse found to explain the cause of the vanishing of love in order to deceive oneself and others.

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Happy or Not

Both my partner and me are divorced with two children each. We all get along really well and have the usual relationship up and downs but the other day he kept on asking me, are you sure your happy?
I constantly tell him how happy I am and how much I love him. Why does he doubt my happiness?
Please explain this to me.

- TANJA

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Narcissist vs Guardian

Most people are in some way narcissistic or have the trait, but the “narcissists” we are discussing here are those whose narcissism has been enlarged to the extreme extent that it severely affects people around them.

There’s a theory out there that believes that most well-known successful people are narcissists, while I have a different view. In that theory, all those famous people who have different temperaments, defined in Dr. Keirsey’s relationship book “Please understand me 2″, are labeled as narcissists, including Bill Gates and the like, which I can’t seem to agree. I may not have the right to say so, in that, I had no chance living in a life close to them to proof it. However, in that theory, it mentions four types of people: narcissist, sensualist, utilitarian and marketing, and they are exactly what Dr. Keirsey describes as guardian, idealist, rational and artisan, in this case, I would say, Bill Gates is not a narcissist, at most, he is a narcissistic rational.

The theory also classifies narcissist as productive and destructive narcissist, therefore, the tough-minded guardian is probably the destructive narcissist we are talking about. They are the most successful type of people outside the United States, in that, more people tend to follow them in a non-democratic society.

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Poor Loser

We all make mistakes, do we? But with a narcissist (I will try to use more “a narcissist” instead of “narcissists”, because obviously “one” is way enough), you should never make a mistake. It sounds good in some way, in that, with such a narcissist, you will be or at least towards the most perfect person, however, as a narcissist, he / she will never admit he / she makes mistakes.

It’s not that narcissists, they don’t make mistakes, on the contrary, they make the same amount of mistakes, or even worse, when they insist on their correctness, they may end up with a wrong decision.

As long as there’s a mistake, the narcissist will blame you, but never blame himself / herself, even if the fault is extremely apparent at his / hers.

How will you deal with this? I suggest you never to argue with a narcissist over who is wrong if you do want to be with a him / her, since you will never win and the arguing never helps solve problems. It really doesn’t matter who admits who is wrong, because in the narcissist’s heart, he / she senses who is wrong (he / she is super smart don’t forget). You should be the most broadminded to contain a narcissist if you do want to stay with him / her. Sometimes it’s real tough, in that, he / she will keep blaming you till he / she is exhausted; it’s better for you to take it as if he / she was actually blaming himself / herself if this helps.

Anyway, it’s your decision whether to keep a love relationship with a narcissist or not. The above is just my humble suggestion; mostly it’s a mental torture to carry on said suggestion.

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Second Chance

Hi, My name is Adam. I need relationship advice. Recently my girlfriend broke up with me after 4.5 Years of seeing each other. She broke up with me because she held all her emotions in to herself and didn’t say a word to me about what was wrong, until breaking point. When she did finally come to me it was too late she wanted to break up and did not even give me a chance to help solve the issues we were having and to try to fix our love relationship. Tell me this how do I know when there’s something wrong, when every thing seems o.k? Do you guys believe I deserve a second chance?

- Adam

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Better Couple

10 steps to enjoying each other better…
1. Be realistic about each other. Don’t try to turn ur partner into something he or she is not. Let’s face it, guys-there’s only 1 Pamela Anderson in the world, and even she has had her implants removed! Give ur gal a break and understand that her physical appearance is NOT going to change overnite with the help of a few facials or treatments. And ladies, Brad Pitt has already been taken, so u’re gonna have to do with what ur guy is like! Chill out, love each other for what u are. There is more to ur partner than what meets the eye.
2. Always talk things out. Now guys, I know this is not ur fave pastime or mode of resolving issues, but u know what? This works with the gals. Don’t make assumptions about each other’s feelings. Learn to xpress urself better so that ur partner understands what u’re angry about, or hurt about, or even happy about! When u stop talking to each other from the heart, it’s the beginning of the end.
3. Do stuff together. Make an effort to do things together. Do some sports or involve urselves in some shared activities; something both of u enjoy or are interested in. It could be as simple as watching movies together, or just strolling hand-in-hand down Orchard Road. Watch soccer with him once in a while though the green patch on TV puts u to sleep in 3 seconds. And guys, do give in if ur gal asks for another day at window-shopping, rather than suggest that she go out with her girlfriends for “that sort of activities” instead. If u’re spending more time with ur friends rather than with ur partner, it’s a warning sign that u’re drifting apart!!!
4. Meet each other halfway. If he agrees to throw out that rotten T-shirt with the “The_Rock” print, u shouldn’t kick up much of a fuss if he asks u to keep ur room tidy. There’s gotta be a little giving and taking in a love relationship, so learn to meet each other halfway.
5.Show ur love. Buy her flowers or candy or perfume every now and then, even if u have been together for 5 years. It’s wonderful to continue showing someone that u care for him or her. Cook him a special meal, paint him a Valentine’s Day card. Knit him mini-socks he can’t wear ( like for decoration purposes ), buy him a packet of milk for breakfast, or pack his wardrobe for him…so he knows u can still be romantic and loving despite having been together for quite a while.
6. Respect each other. Stop making jokes about her hair or skin, or whatever it is u love to laugh at. Ask urself if she thinks if its funny. And if he has an inferiority complex about his height, stop ogling at tall guys and make him feel worse! Love is about respecting each other’s feelings and being sensitive to each other at all times.
7. Bury the past. Stop bringing up the past. Gals..don’t bring up the happy things about u and ur ex lover to ur guy, it would jus make him jealous or unhappy. And guys, don’t talk about the happy times that u had with ur ex or mention about her in ur every other sentence as it would make ur gal feel un-happy and she might think that u saying all this b’cos u are gonna get back to your ex or not interested in her anymore.
8. Sit on ur jealousy. All of us go thru’ spells of insecurity at the beginning of the love relationship, but don’t translate that insecurity into jealousy. If u’re gonna go through ur partner’s mail and cupboard, and eavesdropping on conversations, u know something is wrong – with u!!! Jealousy is like a poison that slowly spreads thru’ the love relationship before finally killing it. Trust ur partner; love has to have trust in it.
9. Keep ur commitments to each other. If ur partner is standing u up all the time and canceling dates and breaking promises, u need to talk! If u’re in a love relationship, make ur partner ur priority and don’t disappoint him / her if u can help it. It’s really terrible when someone promises to take u to dinner, and then calls to cancel it. Don’t make promises u can’t keep. If ur partner starts to feel that he/she is not important enough to u, u may jus lose him/her.
10. Be honest. Honesty is not scowling at how awful she looks first thing in the morning, or telling him that he has the biceps of a fly ! When we say “be honest”, we mean expressing ur feelings clearly, not being bitingly cruel. When u’re hurt, say so, and when u’re angry, tell him/her, w/o getting hysterical. If u can’t be honest with ur partner, who can u be honest with? æ Love is also about honesty, and a love relationship where no honesty exists probably isn’t worth it!

- Unknown

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Please understand me

Do you believe that a book can change one’s life? I do and it does. It’s called “Please understand me” and it has two versions. The version I read is the 2nd version. Is this change good? I can’t tell. I agree when you gain something you usually lose something else and the same, when you lose something you gain something else. It all depends on the importance of what you gain or on how you view what you gain. Do you appreciate and cherish it? I was in my deep depression finishing a precious friendship with a like-minded male friend. It was a kind of perfect friendship journey once in one’s life. It’s finished because we were too young or because I didn’t read this relationship book.

Sometimes when you are sad about finishing a love relationship with your ex-lover or the like, it’s not because you are still being in love with him/her, rather, because you don’t understand how and why this ends. You always think you can learn from your previous failures when you know the reasons and then you can move on to the next one, however, it doesn’t definitely work the next time, simply because the next love relationship is different, the next person is different. You don’t understand who he/she is from your point of view.

The good point for me to know these differences revealed by this relationship book is that I understand others better although I’m not changed and neither is the other person; It helps get along with others better. However, the other point is when I understand others better but the others still don’t understand me I become even more lonely.

Well, I admit that each individual has his/her path, destiny. I see what I gain and appreciate it and I agree that real life itself is imperfect, therefore, I’m contented with my loneliness and at least, with the perfection stays in my memories. The number of friends other people have around or number of family members other people have around are their victories but just like Canada’s tranquility, without such quantities, I’m contented with what I have and they are my fortune, my treasure.

So here comes this relationship book. It has a Temperament Sorter. When you try the shortcut and do the Sorter usually you can’t get an accurate image of yourself because you don’t truly understand the questions and answers and perhaps you don’t even know yourself! You won’t really know yourself till you thoroughly read this relationship book in great detail.

By the way, I would point out a major difference between Keirsey Intelligence Types and the popular Myers-Briggs Psychological Function Types to make sure that we are talking about the same “types”. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator contributed to Keirsey’s theory, yet it’s imperfect and Keirsey corrected and detailed it in a way that makes Keirsey’s more worthwhile. I have to say that to this point Keirsey’s contribution is enormous.

Keirsey believes that people are derived from two most basic human actions, how we communicate with each other, and how we use tools to accomplish our goals, that is, concrete or abstract in our word usage, and untilitarian or cooperative in our choice and use of tools. This idea of defining personality differences by sticking to what can be observed – words and tools – sets Myer-Briggs’ and Keirsey’s view of personality rather far apart. While Myer-Briggs assumed that personality could be pieced together from independent elements, Keirsey believes that personality comes about not by an integration of elements, but by differentiation within an already integrated whole, emerging gradually as an individuated configurations.

So when two personality fans sit together talking about INTPs, while one is a Meyer-Briggs’ fan and the other Keirsey’s, they are actually talking about two different things, especially when the Meyer-Briggs one mentions “Introverted Thinking”. Once you hear this phrase and if you are a Keirsey fan, please modestly feel proud. Meyer-Briggs call both ISTP and INTP “Introverted Thinking” types, and thus nearly identical in attitude and action. Keirsey, however, sees that NT Rationals are abstract in communicating messages and utilitarian in using tools to implement their goals, while SJ Guardians are concrete in communicating messages and cooperative in using tools, therefore, they are greatly different…

The following is the brief of this relationship book. If you want to save a vital love relationship from failure or if you want to grow and keep a successful love relationship when it just starts it’s very helpful for you or even your partner both to read this relationship book; especially when you have question marks why some of your previous love relationships end similarly, it’s fairly important for you to understand who they are, why they attract you and why it still ends finally.

The main idea of the author’s view is that people are different! You can’t say that they are odd just because of the differences and if so, then you are odd too! People deserve to be respected for what they are. It’s a good start if you know who you are and know your image in others’ eyes. You can’t change yourself, however, at least you know your weaknesses and you know how to hold others the least harmful by keeping the best distance with others. “Harm” can be anything mentally that makes others feel uncomfortable or sad.

Then the next step for you is to understand others, understand who they are, understand the differences, understand why some people have a kind of excessive cleanliness while you are proud of your spontaneousness without knowing that some of your small surprises of uninvited visits make these reserved people uncomfortable rather than romantic; you will understand why some people are so sweet while some others sound cold and you happen to fall in love with the latter then you are going starving for a bit more sweetness from your partner. You will understand that love can’t be measured by sweetness; the hidden sweetness is probably the deepest. Your partner can also feel uncomfortable of your excessive sweetness – too feminine in some people’s eyes…

I am an artistic idealist influenced by guardian and rational. I know that meal is important than other idealists do. The author Dr. Keirsey said, “No matter what kind of persons Idealists marry, however, it is not too much to say that they are the best of all the temperaments at creating successful and fulfilling marriages. Their sensitivity, their spirit of cooperation, their ability to communicate their feelings, their passion for their mates, and their desire for deep bonding, their personal warmth and enthusiasm – all these traits work their magic in the Idealists’ relationships.” This is true that the one who mates with idealist is happy, however, on the other hand, idealist becomes the one who has to put up with all the harm passively. That resulted in my depression and sadness. That’s also how and why I learned from rational how to be rational. That’s why I cherish health and happiness over the rest.

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