- Stacy | Founder
Relationship Connection: 3 Choices that Make or Break It
Relationships are a complex dance of emotions, and within this intricate choreography, there are three fundamental choices that can either enrich your partnership or leave it in a state of emotional disconnect. Let's delve into these choices that can make or break the connection with your significant other.
The Content of Conflict: A Deceptive Facade
Imagine a couple named Matt and Evalin. Their arguments seem to revolve around trivial matters, like who should pick up clothes from the floor or who forgot to buy snacks at the grocery store. But beneath these seemingly mundane disputes lies a deeper issue – emotional disconnection.
In truth, most couples' conflicts are not about the specific topic at hand but rather a reflection of the emotional bond between them. Research underscores that relationship erosion often begins with the absence of emotional support.
Attachment Theory: The Key to Relationship Connection
A wealth of research in developmental psychology, attachment theory, and neuroscience reveals that in relationships, interdependence is the name of the game. We are born into this world as vulnerable and dependent beings, and the only healthy way to navigate this vulnerability is by reaching out and connecting with each other.
Attachment theory asserts that our primary relationships with our parents serve as models for our adult relationships. Depending on our experiences growing up, we develop distinct attachment styles that influence our approach to love and connection:
Secure Attachment: If you had emotionally available parents, you likely developed a secure attachment style. You feel comfortable both being close to and apart from your partner, and you can openly express your needs and desires in a relationship.
Anxious Attachment: Unpredictable parental availability might have led to an anxious attachment style. Anxious individuals often blame themselves for their partner's unavailability, leading to demanding behavior or excessive communication in an attempt to reestablish emotional connection.
Avoidant Attachment: Neglect during childhood can result in an avoidant attachment style. People with this style are uncomfortable with emotional closeness and tend to withdraw and numb themselves, often experiencing a trail of failed relationships.
When both partners are emotionally available and can discuss both the highs and lows of life, they create a safe haven within their attachment bond. This safe haven fosters feelings of safety, calmness, and emotional connection, allowing them to expand their sense of self and boost their confidence.
However, when one or both partners become emotionally unavailable or resort to verbal attacks, the attachment alarm goes off. This triggers either a demand for emotional needs to be met or a withdrawal from the relationship, setting the stage for a toxic cycle of panic and insecurity.
The Attachment Radar: Navigating Emotional Connection
As we grow attached to our partners, we develop an attachment radar, which gauges our partner's emotional availability and connection to us through what Dr. Gottman calls "bids" for connection.
Bids come in various forms – from simple remarks about the weather to deeper emotional expressions or gestures like a wink or a gentle touch. These bids, both verbal and non-verbal, are invitations for our partners to respond and convey their trustworthiness, commitment, and value in the relationship.
Verbal Bids for Connection:
"Can you grab the salsa while you're up?"
"You look great today! I can't wait to see you tonight!"
"I messed up the presentation today."
Nonverbal Bids for Connection:
A warm hug
A loving smile
Holding hands
Acts of kindness like opening a door
In essence, every bid is a way of asking, "Can I trust you?" "Will you be there for me?" "Do you value me?" These underlying messages often hide beneath the surface of conflicts, like the ones Matt and Evalin experience.
The Three Relationship Connection Choices
In every relationship, every bid creates a moment of connection, and how we respond to these bids shapes the nature of our connection. Dr. Gottman's research reveals that we typically respond to bids in three distinct ways:
Turning Towards: This response involves actively engaging with your partner's bid. It's the foundation of trust, passion, and a vibrant sex life. Turning towards your partner cultivates intimacy even in seemingly mundane moments, like responding positively when they ask if you have ketchup at home.
Turning Against: When you turn against your partner's bid, you disconnect by responding defensively or negatively. This choice can escalate conflicts and impair emotional connection.
Turning Away: The most detrimental choice is to turn away from your partner's bid, creating emotional starvation. This response, marked by emotional neglect and indifference, inflicts emotional pain and loneliness on your partner.
Bids come in various forms, from the simplest remarks to profound emotional expressions. Every bid represents an opportunity to connect or disconnect.
A partner's choice to consistently turn against or away from bids can erode the relationship over time.
Expressing Missed Bids: Building Trust and Passion
Inevitably, both partners will miss bids from time to time, leading to moments of disconnection. What's essential is recognizing these missed bids and attempting to reconnect.
Addressing missed bids involves:
Mindfulness: Be aware of the subtleties of bids and their significance in creating a passionate and healthy relationship.
Identifying Negative Emotions: Negative bids, wrapped in criticism or frustration, often trigger negative reactions. Look beyond the surface and focus on the underlying bid.
Communication: Discuss missed bids, both minor and major, to ensure your partner is aware of what they missed. This open dialogue fosters trust and intimacy.
Navigating Protests: Understanding Attachment Needs
Conflict is an inevitable part of any relationship. Instead of viewing it negatively, understand that it often serves as a catalyst for reconnection. Protests in a relationship are driven by a primal fear of detachment, a feeling akin to emotional death. When protests occur, partners can either reconnect vulnerably or further withdraw.
Protests can take many forms, from excessive communication to emotional withdrawal. Recognizing these protests and understanding their underlying attachment needs is crucial for restoring emotional connection.
In essence, emotional connection is the foundation of a passionate and enduring relationship. It creates a positive loop of trust, responsiveness, and desire, leading to profound eroticism in moments of emotional vulnerability.
To sum it up, while the honeymoon phase may seem like the height of passion, emotional connection forms the heart and soul of a truly passionate and lasting relationship. Embrace it, nurture it, and watch your love story evolve into a symphony of deep connection and unwavering passion.
Emotional Connection: The Key to Thriving Relationships
When it comes to relationships, the choices we make can either strengthen the bond or create a chasm of emotional disconnection. Every interaction, every word spoken, and every action taken is a choice that shapes the course of our relationships. In this article, we will explore the pivotal choices that can make or break your connection with your partner.
The Hidden Battles of Couples
Consider the case of Matt and Evalin. Their arguments seem to revolve around trivial matters, like picking up clothes or forgetting snacks. On the surface, it appears they're quarreling about nothing significant. However, what lies beneath the surface is the true cause of their conflicts – emotional disconnection.
Conflict often stems from a lack of emotional connection with a partner. Numerous studies in developmental psychology, attachment theory, and neuroscience emphasize the profound interdependence that defines our relationships. From birth, we are born helpless and dependent, and the only way to navigate this vulnerability is to connect with one another.
Attachment theory posits that our early relationships with our parents shape our adult relationships. Depending on our upbringing, we may develop different attachment styles:
Secure Attachment: Growing up with emotionally available parents nurtures a secure attachment style. Individuals with this style feel comfortable both close to and apart from their partners. They can express their needs openly and confidently.
Anxious Attachment: Unpredictable parental availability during childhood fosters an anxious attachment style. These individuals tend to blame themselves for their partner's unavailability. They may resort to making demands or excessive communication to re-establish emotional connection, which can push their partners away.
Avoidant Attachment: Experiencing neglect as children leads to an avoidant attachment style. Those with this style tend to avoid emotional closeness with their partners and may withdraw from relationships. This pattern often results in a history of failed relationships.
The Power of Emotional Connection
In a relationship where partners are emotionally available and can discuss both joys and challenges, a secure attachment bond creates a safe haven. This haven makes both partners feel secure, calm, and deeply connected. It offers a foundation for self-expansion and increased self-confidence.
However, when partners are emotionally distant or engage in verbal attacks, it triggers anxiety and insecurity. The attachment alarm goes off, leading to demands or withdrawal, which can poison the relationship.
The key to understanding your partner's emotional availability lies in recognizing their "bids" for connection. A bid can be as subtle as mentioning the weather or as profound as expressing a deep need. Responding positively to these bids builds trust, passion, and intimacy.
The Three Choices in Relationship Connection
Every bid in a relationship creates an opportunity for connection. When your partner makes a bid, you have three choices:
Turn Towards: By responding positively and engaging with your partner's bid, you strengthen your emotional bond. This is the foundation of trust, passion, and a fulfilling sex life.
Turn Against: Responding defensively or negatively to your partner's bid disconnects you emotionally. This defensive behavior can escalate conflicts and lead to disconnection.
Turn Away: Emotionally starving your partner by ignoring or neglecting their bids creates pain and loneliness. Feeling emotionally neglected can be as devastating as rejection.
The Attachment Radar
In a relationship, you develop an attachment radar that helps determine your partner's emotional availability. Bids for connection come in various forms, including verbal and nonverbal expressions:
Verbal Bids: Simple requests like, "Could you grab the salsa?" or compliments like, "You look amazing today."
Nonverbal Bids: Affectionate touch, facial expressions, or kind gestures such as a hug, a wink, or opening a door.
Bids are subtle invitations for your partner to respond, conveying messages like, "Can I trust you?" "Will you be there for me?" "Do you value me?" In essence, these bids represent the underlying messages in conflicts, like the one between Matt and Evalin.
The Role of Protest Behavior
When emotional needs go unmet due to a partner's lack of response, protest behavior emerges. It's a sign that your primal attachment needs aren't being fulfilled. These behaviors can manifest differently for anxious and avoidant attachment styles:
Anxious Attachment Protest Behavior:
Excessive Attempts to Reestablish Contact: Frequent calls or texts, waiting for a phone call, or loitering near your partner's workplace.
Withdrawing: Emotionally numbing yourself or physically leaving the situation.
Keeping Score: Monitoring response times and waiting for your partner to initiate reconciliation.
Acting Hostile: Displaying anger through eye-rolling, shouting, or walking out.
Manipulations: Pretending to be busy, ignoring calls, or pretending to have plans.
Threatening to Leave: Using ultimatums like, "If you don't do this, then..."
Avoidant Attachment Protest Behavior:
Pretending to be occupied, such as reading a newspaper.
Engaging with technology, like checking emails or using the phone.
Leaving the room to avoid emotional connection.
Protest behavior stems from the fear of disconnection, and it's an instinctual response to reestablish emotional bonds. Recognizing and discussing these behaviors can lead to healthier expressions of needs and emotions.
Being Response-Able in Relationships
In a relationship, you are responsible for meeting your attachment needs and helping your partner meet theirs. This involves being emotionally and physically open and responsive to your partner's bids for connection. Four common obstacles to recognizing your partner's bids include mindlessness, negative emotions, protest behavior, and technology distractions.
For anxious lovers, expressing their needs directly is vital to creating a healthy relationship. Avoiding ultimatums and demanding behaviors can pave the way for more effective communication.
Avoidant lovers should recognize the importance of interdependence over independence. By providing reassurance and creating space for their partner's needs, they can ease their partner's insecurities and foster a deeper connection.
Expressing Missed Bids
Inevitably, you and your partner will miss bids for connection. It's crucial to address missed bids, both small and significant, to maintain a positive perspective and build trust in the relationship.
Unaddressed missed bids can lead to questions about your partner's commitment and trustworthiness.
Embracing Conflict for Reconnection
Conflict is an integral part of a loving relationship, not a sign of its demise. Instead of taking conflict personally, view it as an opportunity for reconnection. The choices you make during conflict – to blame, control, withdraw, or express your needs – can either enhance or damage the connection.
In a healthy relationship, emotional connection, secure attachment, and supportiveness create a beautiful dance of love. Partners build trust, passion, and desire through their emotional bond. Profound eroticism thrives in moments of emotional vulnerability, where partners feel emotionally and physically safe.
In conclusion, emotional connection is the bedrock of thriving relationships. By recognizing bids for connection, choosing positive responses, and addressing missed bids, you can cultivate a passionate, healthy, and enduring relationship with your partner.
If you enjoyed this article, you may also enjoy Breaking Down the Silent Wall: Confronting Stonewalling in Relationships and Relationships: 8 Things You Should Never Tolerate.
