How to be committed to my partner?

I have a lovely boyfriend. we have been together for 6 years and though we are very different, we always find ways to enjoy ourselves and have a good time together. we love each other and live together. he is caring, and respectful and has done a lot for my happiness. But sometimes when we have arguments, as everyone does at some point in their relationship, I am very quick to judge our relationship and whether we are fit for each other. I constantly doubt that he is the right person for me and it makes me very anxious most of the time.
Asked by Tg
Answered
09/11/2022

The best way to gauge the strength of your relationship is to look at how willing you are to be living in harmony and accepting one another.  Each person is different and you may not always understand each other, but if you are willing to accept one another and have a belief that both of you are acting from a good place, that can go a long way to being able to handle conflicts and disagreements.

You won't always agree with each other, but if you are able to focus on why you are together, what you want to share and create together, and what you are committed to, you can make it past many barriers.

The idea is that you are both complete people and together you can create something additional and positive to each other's lives.  If it is not a positive addition to your life, then you might want to question why you are together. If there are more positives than negatives when you are together, that is a good barometer to the health (and benefits) of your relationship.  

You should be able to look at your lives together and if it is overall a good thing, that is a good sign.  Also, if you like doing things together and you love and like each other, that too, is a good sign.

The bottom line is that you don't know for sure what is going to happen in life and in your relationship, but you can definitely have a basic idea of the health of your relationship and the likelihood of maintaining and improving your relationship.

One of the main tasks is communication and part of that is getting to know one another, each other's values, beliefs, goals in life, etc.  The only way to know these things is by talking about these things together.  Leave no stone unturned and learn as much as you can about each other.  

Again, you may not agree on everything, but by learning as much as possible about each other you at least know as much as possible about each other and then you can work on accepting each other and feel safer knowing that there really should be no surprises or unknown aspects of your relationship to pull you apart.