Relationships are intricate riddles. One experience of falling in love is never ever similar to another.
Some of us may have been in several relationships in our lives, and all of them may be very different from each other. But there are certain characteristics that all relationships have in common.
Talking about different phases in a relationship; have you ever wondered what stage you are in right now?
The Stages of Love
Love affairs, just like life, have their own stages. It all begins with attraction and goes through many situations along the path. These phases are like riddles that test your compatibility with each other.
One mistake anywhere along the way and your relationship will hit the ground.
Ask yourself! Haven’t you ever met a couple that seemed like they were made for each other? The ones that are going to stay together forever, but ended up splitting up, a few years later?Certainly, they went wrong in one or more of these stages of the relationship.
Here’s a list of 9 relationship stages that all couples have to pass, no matter how their love story begins.
The 9 Relationship Stages That All Couples Have To Pass
Have you just stepped into a new relationship? Or have you been in a relationship with someone for several years?
No matter how long your relationship has lasted, all the relationships fit perfectly in at least one of these stages.Search for your own relationship stage here, and it’ll surely help you in understanding your own love life better.
Stage 1: The Attraction Stage
This is the obviously the first stage in every relationship. It always begins with a passionate attraction and an uncontrollable desire to be with each other. Both of you may be sexually attracted to each other, or both of you may just love each other’s company or cuddling. In this stage, both of you ignore any flaws of each other and only focus on the perfect sides.
Stage 2: The Stage Of Understanding
In this stage, both of you start getting to know each other in a better way. You have really long conversations with your partner that stretch late into the night, and everything about them interests and excites you. You talk about each other’s likes, dislikes, families, friends, exes and other shareable secrets. All of a sudden life seems so romantic and beautiful.
Stage 3: The Troublesome Stage
This stage usually compels its way into a happy love affair after a few months of blissful chasing. Remember the first disagreement or the initial fight you and your partner had? The stage of troubles is all about the confront. For the first time ever in your love story, both of you confront each other over a conflict, although it’s sorted out quickly.
Stage 4: The Assumption Stage
This is the stage when both of you start having opinions about each other. As the time rolls by, both of you’re clearer about what your expectations are from each other, and you make assumptions about your partner’s interest towards the relationship.When these assumptions or opinions about your partner very often, it can either leave you depressed, anxious or bubbling.
For example, you don’t expect him to buy you flowers, but he does. You feel amazing. At the same time, you expect him to pick you up from work on time. But he completely forgets all about picking you up and arrives an hour later. Now, this depresses you.
Stage 5: The Fitting-In Stage
You have your own set of expectations from a keeper- an ideal partner. In this stage, both of you try really hard to fit each other into your own mold of expectations. This stage is all about giving and taking, and both partners continuously try to gently convince each other to change their behavior towards the relationship. This stage is a real struggle that mostly ends a relationship in case both partners are dominating.
Stage 6: The Stage Of Happiness
If the relationship somehow manages to survive past the molding stage, both of you may have given up equally for each other and have understood each other’s expectations. In this stage, the relationship swings along swiftly and both of you may be very satisfied with each other.
Almost always, this is the exact stage where both of you feel like you’re made for each other. You may even think about getting engaged or married. This stage of happiness is also the stage of attachment when both of you actually feel connected to each other and love each other unconditionally.
Stage 7: The Deciding Stage
It’s been many years since both of you have been in a rollercoaster relationship with each other. And somewhere along the path, doubts start to peep in. The power of doubts depend on how happy or unhappy both of you are in the relationship.
You start thinking about your past relationships and other prospective partners including your exes. You relate your happiness in life with your relationship and if you’re unhappy, you blame it on the relationship too.
In this stage, you start to compare your relationship with that of other couples’. Would your relationship pass this deciding stage? It definitely would, if your relationship isn’t monotonous or repetitive.
Stage 8: The Sexual Stage
This is the stage when your sex life starts to play a major role. One of you may lose interest in sex or both your sex drives may change completely.
In this stage, you either stick onto a not-so-passionate sex or constantly look for other interesting ways to make sex more exciting. If sexual interests start varying here, one of you may end up having an extra affair. But at the same time, if you find interesting ways to make your sex life more exciting, your relationship could get better with time and make both of you inseparable.
Stage 9: The Stage Of Absolute Faith
Faith
This is the best stage when both of you love and trust each other completely. But on the other side, the indestructible trust in each other could also turn into taking each other for granted.
In this stage, both of you know where to go with the relationship and are completely happy with each other. You find it easy to predict each other’s decisions and behaviors. But with stability in love life comes the obvious impulse to take each other for granted.
No matter how pleasant this final stage of love may be, it’s still not an excuse to take each other for granted or stop appreciating each other, because if you do so, someone else will fill in that void at any time you fail to express your romance to your lover. Remember, love is an intense emotion that can be rekindled.
If you’ve been in a relationship for a while, you may have already experienced all or most of these relationship stages. And if you’re still in a raw love, don’t let the harsh side of these relationship stages put you down.
Rather, look at these 9 relationship stages as initials into a better future, one that is filled with a lot of love, trust, and happiness, just as long as both of you remember breathing love into your relationship all the time.
