Have you ever been in a relationship with someone with whom you felt you couldn’t be your authentic self?

Or maybe, even though you trusted your partner, you felt like you couldn’t share with them all of your thoughts and feelings?

If that’s the case, your relationship probably lacked emotional safety, or your partner exhibited emotionally unsafe behaviors.

What’s emotional safety, you ask?

Besides the fact that it’s a vital component of any healthy, successful, and long-lasting relationship, I’m gonna explain right away:

• what it means
• how you can spot an emotionally safe person
• how you can evaluate whether you…

Our relationship beliefs matter because what you believe about a relationship is also what you bring into it.

Between Hollywood movies, crappy tv-shows, and dozens of articles by people who have no idea what they’re talking about, many of us have unfortunately developed some unhealthy beliefs about love and dating, that hamper the growth and success of our relationships.

What follows are the four most common, yet toxic beliefs most people have about relationships, and how they can harm the happiness of the two people involved in one.

1. Relationships Should Follow a Specific Pattern

Here’s a universal truth about relationships: they take place within a social…

A few days ago, I saw another devastating public post on Facebook about an attempted rape. A couple of hours later, the story was all over social media as well as on Greek television news.

You can guess how the story went.

A girl was followed by a young man as she was returning home at night. He followed her right to the door of her apartment building — with his genitals on full display — but thankfully the girl was lucky enough to manage to open the door before he could make it inside.

Again, thankfully, the apartment building…

I don’t remember when I started reading, or what was the name of the first book that I read. I do remember, however, the book that turned me into a lifetime reader.

It was the first book in the Harry Potter series, and I was about 8 when my mother brought it to me as a gift.

And that was it. The moment I opened the book and read its first pages was also the moment I fell in love with reading…and the rest is history.

Over the years, I’ve read so many books and book series I’ve lost count…

If you look up the definition of “crush” in the Cambridge Dictionary, you’ll get the following:

“a strong but temporary attraction for someone”

The Webster’s dictionary, on the other hand, defines crushes as:

“an intense and usually passing infatuation”

These definitions don’t do justice to what a crush actually feels like, right?

More often than not, when you have a crush on someone you don’t just feel attracted to them. You might feel desperate to see them, to touch them, to talk to them. …

Nothing can get in the way of and eventually ruin a good relationship like low self-esteem. If you don’t believe you’re good enough for someone, how could you possibly form and sustain a healthy relationship?

Low self-esteem knows no boundaries and no age limit. It’s not always obvious and affects everyone differently. You might have the looks of Angelina Jolie and still suffer from low self-esteem — and have to constantly deal with the relationship difficulties it creates.

From choosing the wrong partners to cheating, here are some examples of how low self-esteem can manifest in your relationships:

#1. Choosing the Wrong Partners

Low self-esteem…

Does your relationship lack boundaries? Do your partner’s needs take priority over your own? Do you feel like you can’t tell the difference between your partner’s emotions and your own?

If those things sound familiar, you might be tangled up in an enmeshed relationship.

Enmeshment is a term used in psychology to describe relationships that lack personal boundaries, to the point of losing one’s sense of individuality and independence. The tricky thing about it is that the behavior and actions that stem from it may seem innocent and be confused with closeness and selflessness.

However, being in an enmeshed relationship…

Do you feel like your partner acts more than a child than an adult? Does it seem like they always put themselves first?

Are they all talk and no action? Do they struggle to process and express their feelings and try to keep everything on a surface level?

If you answered yes to most of these questions, there’s a chance you’re involved with an emotionally immature partner. Unfortunately, getting romantically involved with someone who lacks emotional maturity will likely torment you emotionally and negatively affect your mental health.

Why? Because healthy relationships are built on mutual respect, trust, patience, and…