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Choosing your relationship battles
Learn how to tell what's worth fighting for and what isn't in a relationship.
By Jessica Padykula
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Share your relationship stories with others in our forums!
Talk the talk
If you let the small stuff trump the bigger issues in your relationship, the bigger issues will eventually come back to haunt you. This means you need to talk about them. "Buried resentments and disappointments wear away at the foundation of a relationship and, after a period of time a couple may give up and grow apart due to lack of understanding and closeness," explains Messinger.
Hearing the feelings of your partner and airing differences in a relationship are important to the health of the partnership. "No two people are ever completely alike and need to be able to express what they feel and what they think," Messinger says.
Messinger's top 3 pieces of advice for maintaining open, constructive communication in a relationship:
1. Don't leave large issues to fester and remain unresolved.
2. Practice productive communication consistently.
3. Seek help if your communication style is destructive and causing the erosion of your relationship.
Timing is everything
It's all about timing when it comes to deciding to share annoyances with your partner. For example, it's a good idea to save a talk about household issues, such as his lack of interest in dirty dishes, when he's most likely to be receptive.
A bigger problem, such as the habit of interrupting you while you're talking is something that can hamper successful communication and should be worked on early in a relationship, i.e. as soon as you notice it as a recurring problem, so that it has a chance of being resolved. Don't let the important issues fall by the wayside, flag them for discussion as soon as you feel hurt or upset so the issue doesn't fester.
Check out these reasons it's great to be single
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