Communication

Trust is essential to a healthy, happy relationship—therefore, when trust is lost or broken, one’s relationship can suffer significantly. The good news is that trust can be restored, so long as both partners are willing to confront open wounds and work on rebuilding. If you’ve damaged your partner’s trust, start…

We all lie—we say we’re younger than we really are, we claim to be okay when we’re not, and we tell our friends they look great when they don’t. I stand by the argument that lying is okay in certain instances, such as these, when the effects are virtually harmless….

Relationship experts recommend being honest, kind, and direct in the delivery of a breakup. They say to use “I” statements, be considerate of the other individual’s feelings, and most importantly, make your reasoning crystal clear. But that’s not usually how a breakup unfolds, is it? Instead, we use cliché breakup…

Breakups suck. I don’t care if you’re the dumper or the dumpee—regardless, you’re in a sucky position. However, there is one key difference between the two: as the dumper, you decide how this breakup unfolds. Or at least how this breakup begins to unfold. While there is no textbook equation…

I struggle with social anxiety. It takes some time for me to warm up to people, and until I do, I’m incredibly quiet and decently awkward. This makes first impressions and introductions pretty painful—I’m talking job interviews, blind dates, work functions, meet-the-parents… I never know what to say, what to…

Any time I’m left alone in a public space, I dig my phone out of my pocket and act like I have important business to attend to. This is never truly the case. I’m just so awkward and so nervous around strangers that I must engage in an imaginary conversation…

Do you have a tested and true strategy for getting your way? Say you’re in a heated discussion with your boyfriend or you’re talking a possible raise with your boss. In any regard, someone is going to come up with the short stick. And you want to do what you…

You’re heading to the car dealership, ready to purchase a 2012 Toyota Highlander. You know that this car is reliable, in your price range, and a great fit for your family. This is exactly what you tell the car salesman who greets you at the doors and asks what he…

Breakups are rarely easy: you’ve spent valuable time together and gotten to know each other at a deeper level than most. But that doesn’t mean you should or could make the relationship work. If you’ve decided that it’s time to go separate ways, it’s important you communicate that to your…

I used to be really good at not talking about my feelings. I kept everything bottled up until I near exploded. Why? Well, if I opened up about my feelings then they became real; and, more importantly, I didn’t like to burden anyone else with my feelings. Fortunately, I’ve since…

I hate confrontation: I do everything in my power to avoid it, even if that means surrendering my argument or swallowing my feelings. This is okay to do every now and then, such as when you’re bickering with your roommate about who did the dishes last, but it’s taboo for…

Every couple faces adversity—whether its infidelity, jealousy, insecurity, abuse, a combination of the four, or something different entirely. In any given case, what’s most important is not the difficulty at hand, but how one addresses and solves that issue. I learned this firsthand in a particularly challenging relationship a few…