But according to an article in Psychology Today, knowing how to handle conflict increases self-awareness and confidence — which means that this is a critical skill to learn, and one of the best ways I know to create deeper intimacy and connection in your romantic relationship. So today, I’m going to equip you with some ideas for what to do and say during the three most common relationship conflicts you’re bound to experience …
- Your partner is making you feel angry or disappointed. This is probably one of the hardest ones to deal with, because it’s inevitable. We all make mistakes, we do things that don’t align with our values, and we say things we don’t mean, especially in the heat of the moment. Here’s what you can try … First, start with a pause. Try to stay silent for at least a couple of seconds so you can understand how you feel first. Why do you feel hurt, or angry? This will help you better explain to your partner how you’re feeling in a constructive way. Then, you can say something like this: “I feel very upset right now. When you said or did ‘X,’ it really hurt me because ‘Y.’ Do you mind if I ask you a few questions so I can better understand where you’re coming from?” You can say what feels natural for you; but the reason I recommend this is because people usually have a reason why they’ve done or said something. When you address your partner with thoughtful questions, it’s much easier to see where communication broke down, and to proceed with resolving the conflict fairly and productively. This also leads to much better apologies in the future — you are both taking the time to understand the problem first and how you can act differently in the future.
- You and your partner disagree about “big things” (career, money, health). Of course, the more your values are aligned with those of your partner, the easier life is. But remember that we’ve all come from different families, religions, and cultures and that’s bound to cause differences and misunderstandings when it comes to the most important areas of our lives. Yet the difficulty here isn’t necessarily the differences themselves, but how you deal with them. So what’s the best way? You have to talk about them, see where you have connection points, and come up with concrete ways to deal with your differences. For example, the next time you find you and your partner having the same fight over money yet again, set aside time to talk specifically about how you each think about finances. Here’s an example of what you might talk about at that meeting (we just went through one of these ourselves recently):
- You both want two different things, but don’t want to compromise. None of us want to give up what we want. For a lot of people, it feels like “losing a limb” when we compromise. So what do I recommend? Don’t compromise. I know it sounds counterintuitive, but the truth is it never feels good to give up what you want so that your partner gets what they want, because then both sides end up feeling dissatisfied. Let’s say the disagreement involves something bigger like wanting to live in different cities. It’s important to be upfront about what you want from the beginning, and continually reinforce it. If you’re not having conversations or setting a timeline for something like a big move, it’ll explode later on and cause a lot of issues. For example, when I moved to LA to be with my partner, he wanted to move to San Francisco in a short amount of time, but I didn’t want to. So we made a decision: that we’d eventually be in the Bay Area together, but for now, we’d be in Los Angeles while I was pursuing my dream. I ended up getting a job in San Francisco sooner than I thought and we were living apart for 8 months while we made the transition. So if you need to, set check-ins on your calendar to dedicate time to talking about these big issues or as I like to call them, “baby elephants” in the room. The longer they go ignored, the bigger they’ll become and it’ll be much harder to find your way through them. From personal experience, I know that handling conflict isn’t easy, but just like knowing how to have a great relationship is a skill, so is this. All it takes is putting one brave step forward and showing your partner that you’re ready and willing to understand them and come out better on the other side. Felicia is giving away a free relationships eBook just for MindBodyGreen readers so you can have deeper, more fulfilling relationships today.
