“The best thing to hold onto in life is each other.” – Audrey Hepburn
There are 5 stages of love all relationships are eventually meant to go through.
Knowing this in advance will prevent future problems and headaches from raining down upon you.
It can additionally provide you with hope that the situation you find yourself in will eventually pass. If you face the turbulence together and hold on, your life will improve. You will find yourselves coming closer to each other and your love will endure the test of time.
1. Passion
It’s easy to start desiring a person immensely if they happen to be attractive, entertaining, intelligent, and funny all at the same time. Being the first stage of true love, it will be more than enough to send your whole body into overdrive and tie your heart and stomach into knots. Passion is indeed a “honeymoon stage” of your relationship and it makes your relationship both addictive and highly enjoyable.
2. Getting serious
In stage two you’re still a great couple. You hold hands when going out and cuddle up in each other’s arms to watch a movie, but something is different. The craziness of the honeymoon phase has calmed down because you’ve moved together, maybe got married and invested in a house, and there may even be a baby on the way.
While sex is still a big part of your relationship, it is now more loving, more meaningful, and maybe a little more rushed at times if you have a newborn in the house. But there are now bills, rent, babysitters, and other adult things to worry about. The fun times have run their course as your relationship entered the serious zone.
3. Confusion
A relationship doesn’t need too much time to start speeding up. Household duties like cleaning can become a nightmare as you are trying to successfully juggle between washing, drying laundry and preparing dinner, among other things. When they are flying in all directions like this, the couple is likely to start taking the relationship for granted. And this is the precise point at which most couples begin questioning the long-term success of their relationship.
4. Calming down and seeing things in a clear light
Assuming that you’ve made it through stage three, you will now start to see each other for who you truly are. A lot has happened since stage two and you are not the same people you used to be due to children, career changes, moves, and other important life events.
You have gotten better at communicating your needs and know not to expect the world of each other. This stage allows you to acknowledge the unhappy times of stage three, and find new methods for moving forward hand in hand, despite all of your flaws.
5. Working together as a team
This is the point where both of you can start looking beyond the relationship and find ways to make other people and the world as happy as you have become. Whether it be through arts or volunteering, your relationship has progressed to a stage through which you can start aiming to make the world a better place.
Have you and your partner been able to pass all the stages of love? Share your stories with us in the comment section below.
