Do you know about fair fighting to save your love?
ll your life you’ve been trying to make this relationship work. We all know that even good-intentioned efforts can fail when you try to live with other people in love and harmony all the time, and it’s natural to assume that differences will bring some frictions.Here, I want to let you in on a secret: the hidden motivation to connect and have a good, healthy fight. Once you understand this, it is easier to look at your current “enemy” – your partner –with empathy; to see their hidden motivations, and perhaps come up with some solutions to fill this deep need for confrontation. In this way, you can fight to save your love, instead of fighting in a way that hinders your love!
Why is winning or losing a dispute so important? Why is there it so essential to our self-esteem? Because we think that we fight mostly for control of things, like time, money, the car, clothes, or a good job. But really, almost every fight actually has at least something to do with the rarely acknowledged need for us to get some recognition from the other. That person is so important because she can give us the acceptance or recognition that we crave!
Go back in your memory to the last three fights you had with your loved one… Imagine that each fight is a heartfelt quest for support, recognition, and respect from him or her. If so, having your partner say out loud, “Yes, you are right on this issue,” validates you and makes the world right again.
Does it feel good? Now, compare that with the pleasure you get when obtaining the thing you were ready to fight about... how does it compare? No way!
Why can't we even mention our deep need for validation from our spouse? Very simple, it has to be offered, spontaneously! That is the crux of the matter: If we have to beg for it, it doesn't taste so good, right? It has to be proffered because it is an evident, undeniable fact that we are right, that we are intelligent and beautiful and lovable… not because we ask people to say so! And that, by the way, is the reason we get married: to have someone, freely elected, who can say to the world that we are such a beautiful person they want to spend their lives with us!
And then, very shortly, this admiration we managed to achieve goes missing, and sadly the only way to get our partner’s attention back on us is to have a good fight.
OK, let’s assume that you have decided that having a fight is the way to receive attention again. Remember that it has not to be destructive. Positive conflict helps you organize a respectful confrontation, following some simple rules.
We need to remind you that “love” as it is known in songs and popular conversations, has no meaning if it is not carried along with a certain set of behaviors. Those love behaviors have to be learned and applied, even in the case of having a good marital fight! Once you accept this, you will find that your life is infinitely more satisfying and rich, because people will recognize immediately that you know how to treat them well!
Want to know more about saving love in your relationship?
