Terrence Kennedy
Take a detour in your life and take a look at all the relationships that you’ve had.
Dating is definitely an art but it is one of the building blocks that makes or breaks a relationship.
If you take a closer look at relationships, there are certain stages which decipher whether you’re going to stick through thick & thin or not.
“Someone who truly loves you, sees the mess you can be, how moody you can get, and how hard you can be to handle but still wants you. He’s the one worth investing your life in.” -Anonymous
These stages are the living examples of helping you know whether you’re in for a long term relationship or not.
One after the other, every stage not only makes you aware of your status but also builds in the confidence of having each other side by side and lets the interest grow stronger or what you call the bond getting stronger.
What are these stages that help you through and give you a better understanding? Find them below.
Characteristics of a Healthy Relationship: The Stages
Setting the Mood to be Interested
This has to be the first stage where you saw the other half in a party or any other gathering where you realized - it’ll be great if I could talk to him or her.
After spending a few moments observing the general attributes and how the person is, you would want to take the next step. There are chances that you might have got attracted to the other one because of some gesture, smile, personality or anything else.
The bottom line - you are attracted and now is the time when you make a move and introduce yourself. Make the move and go up to them. Introduce yourself and be yourself (this avoids faking and getting the wrong clue) while being the best you are.
Getting to Know Each Other
Once you’ve made a dashing entry and have made sure that you’ve left a lasting as well as quite a pleasing impression on your partner, it is time for getting to know each other.
If you have common interests, things will be easier and quicker than in comparison to times when you have different angles on a specific something.
Exchanging texts, calls, clicking photos and tagging each other in photos would be done at this stage.
Not all these meetings would call a date because you might meet with other people around you and it’ll be more like a friends get-together.
First Official Date
If you’ve successfully exchanged a couple of texts and conversations & think that you can meet up (just the two of you), you plan an official date with your partner.
Dress well and make all the preparations to put your best foot forward. Accessories well and smell good in order to avoid any mishaps.
Now that’s where you’ll spend some quality time talking about love, life and yourself with the person you’ve started admiring.
The first date calls for a kiss that you two would share. Well, it is not mandatory that you kiss on the same day itself and the same can be done on the second or the third date as well.
The conclusion of the date would be that you found the other person appealing on the first stage and decide whether or not to take the relationship forward.
The Sleepover
Now let’s assume that you’ve shared a kiss and things are blissful between you two.
Now, you plan to either spend nights together or just get cozy between the sheets and head back home. In the case of sleeping over to either of the places, the probability is that you end up making love which again would decipher whether the other half is good or not.
Don’t make this as a casual meeting and sleeping together because it might end hurting the other person’s sentiments. In either the case, you will make up your mind and disentangle of whether she is worth the effort or not.
Getting Down and Dirty
Once you’ve successfully encrypted the idea that you want to stay with the one you’re dating right now, you spend some crazy nights and wild mornings together.
Playing around, getting down and dirty to the core with all the sexy moves that are needed in an affair are some of the basic things that are involved in this stage.
Being able to connect with each other on a physical ground is more like having staple food these days.
You actually come to know quite a lot while indulging in the act of making love.
Meeting the Parents
If you’ve clearly thought about taking this relationship to the next level, now is the time to meet your family.
Make up your mind and introduce your family to your woman or vice versa. Give them time to understand each other. Let them share their thoughts and have a question answer round (if there are any) to decide how things will work out between you two.
Parents being the only people whom care about, must be a part of your relationship and your big day. This is a crucial phase where you need to support each other.
Marriage
When you’ve made this far and have deeply thought about spending life with the person you love, marriage is the next major step. Take the vows in front of the alter and exchange the rings to make her yours forever and ever. Make promises that you wouldn’t break and that’s where your life takes a new turn.
Now, you can go ahead, make plans about you two as well as for your family, have kids and live your life in the years to come.