Advice for Relationship Push/Pulls

From an article (link) in Care2.com by Wendy Strgar*

Do you understand the push-pull phenomenon that drives most relationships?

Do you even know whose side you’re on?

This basic principle in the dance of intimacy can sometimes feel like a strategy game, but in long term relationships it can also become a dangerous pattern that drives lovers apart. Here are some ideas to ease the pendulum swings and follow your heart to balance in love.

We all remember the late evening strategy sessions with friends, the endless tracking of who called first, the weighing in of when it was ok to call back, how to show you were interested but not too interested. This balancing act that characterizes most early dating scenes often evolves into romantic patterns that plague many ongoing relationships.

In my own marriage, we suffered through years of what often becomes one of the most hurtful and significant battles in a relationship: the initiation question and the way it is answered.

The questions can seem playful, such as:
“How about a date tonight?�?or
“Have you any plans around midnight?�?

But when the requests come continuously from one partner and are rebuffed continuously by the other partner, the question is no longer playful, and the responses begin to reflect all that remains unsaid.

The shame of rejection is no easier to bear than the shame of chronic lack of desire. We all know this story in some form, and we continue to analyze it, trying to determine responsibility.

Placing blame is the easiest way to find a way to live with the pain of unrequited desire.

The first thing that helps is to identify the situation. Find a neutral time to bring up the topic and agree to look at the issue from a distance, almost as though you were talking about people you both know. This can be difficult to do, especially if the conversation is overdue. The moment you can both see the patterns that your intimacy falls into, there is a peace that comes from not being alone with it. This doesn’t solve the problem, but it allows you to create a new relationship to it �?one of witness and investigator rolled into one �?and learn to separate your feelings from the event.

Once you have both seen the issue from both sides, you can slowly unpack your feelings and start to see what it means to you and to your partner to be desired, or to feel desire.

It is really important to keep these discussions in the present tense. Don’t be tempted to justify your behaviour and feelings from before, because that will remove the possibility of healing the moment.

Keep in mind that by healing the present moment you automatically heal the past.

This is not a quick fix solution. It doesn’t alleviate the push/ pull roller coaster of living in relationship. But by working to take out the sting and pain of rejection, abandonment, and whatever else has been attached to these swings, you allow yourself the joy of exploring them.

Twenty-two years later, my husband and I still pass the weight of relating and intimacy back and forth, on a squeaky but functional pulley that we have both come to understand and appreciate. It’s a relief now that we have the freedom to invite an interlude without the fear that we will start another battle. Allowing yourself and your partner this freedom is a gift.

*Wendy Strgar is owner and founder of Good Clean Fun, whose mission is to promote the awareness and experience of love in the world.