I think that many times we settle for the company of people who aren’t good for us because we don’t want to be alone. Humans are social creatures and we get used to having other people around us. Singles are told that they are just half a person walking around until they find their “better half.” But what happens when you are the “better half” of a friendship or a relationship? What happens when you wake up one morning and discover that you’ve sold yourself short in the friendship/relationship? Do you decide to put some distance between you and the other person? Or do you decide to push through and continue on? Many times people don’t give up relationships or friendships because they’ve grown accustomed to the dysfunction that they bring to their lives. We all have a little crazy in us right? But the point is that at the end of the day, you don’t want to be weighed down by people who are only in your life because you’re lonely. Sometimes being alone isn’t a bad thing if it’s for a reason. The quality over quantity perspective should always apply to friendships and relationships. After all, it’s better to have a few real friends than thousands of fake ones.
Tag Archives: relationships
Something vs. Someone
There’s a huge difference between wanting something and someone. I think that a lot of times it’s easy to group both of these things in the same category. It’s our human nature to want what we don’t currently have. It’s easy, convenient, and can be a reflection of who we truly are inside. However, wanting an inanimate or a tangible object–even to accomplish a certain goal is very different from wanting a person. When you want something, you can work towards it. You can take the necessary steps needed to acquire what you want. Not the same with a person. When you’re dealing with a person, you are dealing not only with them but their background, values, and even their environment. Despite all your best efforts, you can’t make anyone “belong” to you. You can’t scheme around that. If you don’t meet their definition of attractiveness/beauty, you’re pretty much attempting to row upstream without a paddle. It’s easier to plan to get something and to execute the plan than to execute the same plan with a person. There’s too many variables out of your control when you’re dealing with another person. The odds are rarely ever in your favor.
The Beauty of Self-Regulation
I’m always a little wary of any term that starts with the word “self” and then has a dash. I guess you can blame it on the fact that I’m a systemic thinker. Every person is influenced in some way by their environment, their family, and their friends. However, self-regulation is a term that I’ve come to like because of my experiences in my environment. Self-regulation is a skill that many people don’t have. We’ve all seen people when they are getting escalated or extremely angry and all of a sudden they blow their top and do or say something extremely stupid. I’m willing to bet that some of these people were the kids who had temper tantrums until their parents got tired of it and gave into their demands. Not cool. I think of self regulation as the ability to calm down and take a step back from the situation because you know that it’s getting out of hand. Unfortunately, self-regulation also requires self-awareness–which also is extremely rare. I see this all the time in the couples I work with. They start arguing over something completely mundane and before you know it, both just start slinging mud at each other. Emotions are high and each person feels the need to defend him or herself by “proving” that the other person’s actions were way worse. The past gets brought up and before you know it, both people are so dis-regulated they don’t want to have anything to do with each other. But what if this cycle didn’t have to happen? Most people can identify when they’re irritated or annoyed by something and many times they know exactly what that “something” is. I’m not an advocate of avoiding issues, but sometimes taking a break from an argument and then coming back to it when you’re calm and are thinking clearly can save a LOT of unnecessary stuff. When you’re mad, chances are that you aren’t thinking straight. You’re not calm or even able to hear the other person’s point of view. Taking a few minutes or hours to remove yourself from the situation or even to take 15 deep breaths can help you to think more clearly and to stick to the topic at hand instead of using it as an opportunity to bring up anything and everything from the past in order to get it off your chest. You’ll be able to choose your words more deliberately without the fuel of extreme anger. Definitely easier said than done but still worth a try.
The Law of Averages
One of the ways that I conceptualize human interactions is though the lens of what I call the law of averages. Having been in school for the past five consecutive years, I’ve learned a lot about averages as I’ve gone through classes. Every class in its syllabus lines out what is expected in order to get an “A” in the course. In my undergraduate and high school years, an “A” was a 93% or higher. One of things that I did as I was going through a class would be to constantly average out my assignments so I knew what grade I needed to get in order to get an “A.” Doing this was really helpful for anxiety because I knew that even if I barely passed certain quizzes, I would make it up on the test or the bonus work. With most couples that I see, the good times are really good and the bad times are really bad. One of the questions that I ask in therapy is: What’s been the average of the relationship? Has trust, honesty, genuineness, and love been present the majority of the time? One of my teachers once told me that no one care about the middle part. A good beginning and a strong ending is what really matters. So if you have a good foundation in your relationship and you can learn to reconnect after a heated discussion, argument, or difference in opinion, then the fights won’t be such a threat to the quality of the relationship. It takes time to build that between people but the end product is well worth the work involved.
Stop wasting time
All of us at some point in time have either experienced personally or heard stories of unrequited love. There are dozens of movies where the main characters never actually get together and we are all somewhat let down by this turn in the script. It’s easy to feel that if you love someone they’ll love you back. However, reality often paints a totally different picture. I remember hearing someone tell me that if two people meet and they click, the relationship is automatically dysfunctional because all humans are naturally attracted to dysfunction. I tend to disagree to some extent with that perspective because I think that healthy, well-adjusted, and emotionally intelligent people can have really successful relationships without some of the usual dysfunction. No one wants to be in love alone. It sucks. However, one characteristic of emotional maturity in my opinion is that you can recognize when something is a lost cause. Not because you’re admitting failure, but because you’re accepting the reality of the situation. When you’ve done all you can to show interest in a person and let them know that there is an interest, there’s no need to beat yourself up if they don’t return that interest in you. We can’t make people like us or even make them love us. Continuing to push your love and affection on someone who doesn’t want it is a COMPLETE waste of time. If they wanted you or were in a place emotionally where they could accept and return affection, they would. But to do the same thing over and over again, hoping that the other individual will change and miraculously like you back is pretty much the definition of insanity. Time is money and it is a waste of emotional energy to continue emotionally giving
while hoping for a different result than you’ve got.
Don’t wait to be great
Many times we put things off because we don’t feel like doing them. However, many opportunities are missed when this happens. Take the time to do something today that you’ve put off but will help you in the long run. Refuse to settle for less and do something different. Time waits for no one.
Potential Patrol
I love potential. I admit it. Not necessarily potential in myself, but potential in other people. I think of potential and ambition as somewhat linked together. I can see all the potential in the world in someone but if they don’t have ambition, they are just a waste of potential. No one reaches their potential accidentally. It takes planning and a desire to do something worthwhile. I remember when I was about 10 or 11, I decided that I would do something productive with my life. While I don’t know if I’ll ever “arrive” and proclaim that I’ve reached my potential, I do know that I’ll be able to honestly say that I tried. As much as I like potential, I don’t think that it should form the basis of any type of relationship. People rarely change and when they do, it’s their decision. Being in a relationships with someone thinking that you’ll inspire them to do better and to reach their potential is stupid. Plain and simple. You want to be with someone who has shown some kind of progress toward fulfilling their potential. No, they don’t have to have fulfilled it yet, but actually knowing about it is a good first step. I think that women are notorious for making huge investments in a potential partner because they see potential. However, they quickly are disappointed because potential does not equal ambition. Why not avoid the disappointment and be with someone who has actually made an effort to fulfill their potential? Chances are, you’ll be happier with that decision. Everyone has potential. Few have ambition.
Anger-ology
As I’ve mentioned before, one thing I’m working on in myself is being more aware of my emotions. This weekend found me rather angry over situations that had occurred in the past week. As a therapist, I’ve often noticed that feelings of anger are often products of other emotions. Anger is a emotion used sometimes when we have a hard time verbalizing our primary emotions. I’ve noticed with my couples that feelings of hurt often disguise themselves as anger. It’s easy to blame the other person or to say or do something out of anger instead of saying that you have been hurt. But anger can also be motivation to get out of your current situation. I’m working on dealing with anger in a way that is both healthy and productive and I’ve found that the gym can be an excellent place for that. Next time you feel some angry, take the time to dig deeper and identify two underlying emotions that might be causing it. You’ll raise your self-awareness and learn more about your thought processes.
Why make it harder for yourself?
I talked to a friend of mine recently who had just gotten engaged. Now this person had just graduated from college and was planning to go to law school. She announced to me that she was not going to get married until after she completed law school. The reason? She wanted her maiden name on her diploma. She went on further to explain that she liked her last name and did not want the name of someone else on the piece of paper that commemorated her hard work. Being in a relationship is hard. It doesn’t naturally come easy for most people because a lot of times they have a different agenda than their partner. I don’t know of a couples that agrees on everything. Come to think of it, being with someone who agreed with everything I said would just make me upset and extremely annoyed. Variety is good, and while you and your partner might not always be on the same page, ya’ll should always be in the same book. With the rise of social media, many couples feel that they should have unrestricted access to the profile and message of the other. Others disagree and argue that each person has a right to privacy. Whatever you agree on, stick to it. Relationships are hard work. Why make them harder?
Relationship Status
We all have a Facebook profile. At least most of us. We use it for many purposes that vary from playing games to finding out what our friends, acquaintances, and perfect strangers are doing. Facebook has a way of making you feel connected with people that you may not see on a daily basis. It makes the world feel smaller and can be a great way to find that long lost friend who you lost contact with years ago. Facebook gives you the opportunity to share your relationship status with the world. Are you single? Is it complicated? Are you in a relationship? Or maybe a domestic partnership? It has gotten to the point that many couples can’t wait to make their relationship “Facebook Official.” After deciding to be in a relationship they race to their respective computers/phone/other device and update their relationship status and tell the world that they now in a relationship with a significant other. This post can be commented on or “liked” by their friends. But at what point is it no longer cool to update your relationships status? Should a couple who has a relationship on the rocks update their relationship status to “Complicated?” Does anyone else have a right to know that you are having problems in your marriage? While I don’t think that’s the case, I know that a lot of people believe differently and use Facebook to post about the other individual and give others information about the fights that they’ve had. This sucks other people into what is going and can be even more detrimental for the relationships. Next time you go to update your relationship status, think. Then think again.
Alisha's Angle 