3 Relationship Compromises You Should Never Make

All long-term relationships involve compromise, but, there are compromises which we should never make, as this might mean rough times ahead in the relationship. Here are the things you should not compromise and what to do about them:

1.     Hiding key aspects of who we are.
We worry that our partner will feel threatened, turned off, or annoyed by significant aspects of our personality, aspirations, beliefs, activities, or friends, so we hide or minimize them. However, by doing so we are in essence cutting off parts of our “self.” While we might be able to manage to do so in the short term, over time we are likely to pay a price for our psychological health, our relationship satisfaction, or both.

What you can do: Gradually introduce these aspects of yourself through an ongoing dialogue with your partner about why they are valuable to you and how best the relationship can absorb them.

2.     Tolerating disrespect. 
One of the biggest predictors of relationship dissatisfaction and longevity is if your partner regards you with contempt (or you them) during arguments or disagreements. The disrespect, hostility, and lack of empathy such moments embody represent a crucial weakness that will impair any couple’s ability to manage stress and conflict productively.

What you can do: Talk together about setting ground rules for conflict, improving your conflict-resolution skills and making efforts to understand each other’s perspective to increase empathy.

3.     Significant sexual incompatibility. 
When we hide important and established aspects of our sexuality, such as sex drive, specific turn-ons, fetishes, preferences, or beliefs and practices regarding monogamy, we are setting ourselves up to potentially become frustrated and dissatisfied in a relationship. To be clear, plenty of relationships survive and even thrive in an unsatisfactory sex life; the concern this issue presents depends on the importance we place on having good sex with our partner.

What you can do: Since maintaining a good sex life requires work over the long term in almost any relationship, consider having a frank discussion and coming clean about the things that have been satisfying or exciting for you in the past. The likelihood is that your partner has not told you everything about their own preferences, either, even if their history is less “colourful.”

Source: psychologytoday