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Relationships: Maintaining Your Individuality While Together

    Reasons for Developing a Solid Identity

    If you don’t let your true self out in your relationships, what do you think would happen? Will you let your anger linger and get the better of you? Is there a chance that this could become a fulfilling long-term partnership? What if you don’t get what you want? In what ways might your health be impacted? Do you think your loved ones will miss you? What if you never share your talents with the world?

    When two whole people come together to support each other, we call that interdependence or healthy reliance. You learn to trust and feel safe with them, which aids in navigating the world, but you don’t base your identity or sense of value on them or the connection.

    When two people are confident in one another, they encourage one another to pursue their individual passions and social connections. They are not possessive or unreasonable. Couples need to have both shared and separate experiences. Having close, trustworthy relationships is crucial, but they shouldn’t take center stage at the expense of YOU.

    Consideration is Given More to the Situation Than to Your Health

    It’s natural to care for your partner, but if you’re sacrificing your own emotional and physical well-being to keep the peace in your relationship, you may be giving too much of yourself. Neglecting your health can have severe consequences for your health and may manifest as a refusal to engage in healthy habits that keep you grounded, such as:

    • Routines for getting enough sleep and working out diet and dietary habits.
    • Rearranging your priorities to meet your requirements is a great place to start.

    Maintaining a schedule that works for you might improve your emotional and physical health and help you feel more like the real you. If you take care of yourself, you’ll be in better mental shape to make sound choices and progress in other areas of life. Maintaining your interests in what makes you happy can lessen the pressure to seek fulfilment in a romantic partnership, as Quintero puts it. Boosting your confidence and sense of self-worth can be as simple as engaging in activities you enjoy. Here are some suggestions for putting your wants first:

    • Keeping a regular exercise schedule and eating well
    • Adopting a regular bedtime routine
    • Socialising and engaging in one’s interests
    • Open and frank dialogue can often be the deciding factor in a situation.

    In many cases, the foundation of a strong relationship is just the ability to talk to one another openly and honestly. Once you know what you want, you can have an open conversation with your partner about how they can help you be true to who you are. You could ask your partner for guidance in maintaining emotional ties within the couple while also developing your own unique identity and respecting your partner’s peculiarities. By stating your wants with self-assurance, you can show your partner that you value your opinion and feelings as much as theirs.

    To “keep a sense of equality and balance of power in the relationship,” she adds, it’s important to be open and honest about what you want from the partnership. When things get heated, it may be helpful to bring in a couples therapist for some outside perspective.

    Visit Recovery Direct’s website to book your online addiction recovery course that deals with interpersonal relationships in the context of trauma recovery.

    Go Out and See Your Relatives Solo

    Although your marriage will formally incorporate your partner’s family into your own, Bender stresses the importance of maintaining relationships with your previous set of relatives. Having a healthy balance of time with your spouse and family and time without is the best approach to fostering familial bonds while feeling like you’re included with your partner.

    Keep Your Interests in Mind

    When two people fall in love, they each continue to perceive themselves and the other as unique people with their own views, hobbies, and social circles. Thanks to their unique personalities, they provide a lot of entertainment for one another:

    • Keep up with the hobbies and interests you had before getting acquainted with your partner. For example, if music is a passion or love, go check out our blog about an online guitar course you can take maintain, and enjoy your individuality.
    • It’s crucial to maintain the friendships you made while you were single.
    • Your relationship will flourish if you both continue to invest in activities that have always held significance for each other.
    • Help your significant other keep in touch with friends they cared about before they met you.

    Embracing Your Spouse’s Uniqueness

    Honor your partner by supporting their passions and aspirations rather than imposing your own. Consider your partner’s needs, wants, and emotions to be just as important as your own. This kind of caring and interest in your mate is selfless and transcends your interests.

    To reach this degree of respect, it’s necessary to feel for and show compassion to one’s partner. To do this, you must tap into your rational, emotional, and intuitive faculties to understand and take on your loved one’s traits and characteristics. When you have such a profound level of empathy for your spouse, you can see not just the many ways in which you are similar but also the many ways in which you are unique. The following set of questions can be instructive to ponder:

    • Do I hope that my partner can make up for my flaws? Is it the case, how so?
    • Do I try to soothe my fears and loneliness by relying on my partner?
    • Have I matured as a person and a partner? Do I come out as a parent or a child?
    • How receptive and accepting am I in my relationships?
    • Do I make an effort to be truthful in my interactions with others?
    • Does my life have integrity? Do what I say and what I do say the same thing?
    • What are some of the special hobbies and pursuits that only my significant other has?
    • Do I share my partner’s passions and interests? Do I value their opinions as much as my own?
    • Do my partner’s pursuits pose a threat to our relationship?
    • How do I react when my partner expresses an interest in something that isn’t shared by us?
    • To what extent do I diverge from my companion? Which of the changes do I enjoy? Can you guess which ones I don’t like?
    • How well do I relate to my partner? How much empathy do I have for my partner’s feelings?
    • Is a mutual respect my partner and I have for each other being harmed by any preconceived notions based on our gender?