Working toward or maintaining balance between togetherness and separateness requires healthy communication. Talk to each other about what balance feels like for each of you. It won’t always be equal and it will change throughout your life together but have the conversation and negotiate an equitable outcome.

Talk to each other about what balance feels like for each of you. It won’t always be equal and it will change throughout your life together.

We all know that one couple who does everything together – he tags along to book club, she comes with to watch the game. They share every leisure activity and rarely attend activities independently... bu there is no perfect way to balance being together and apart from your partner. 

Personality is stable throughout life, so don’t expend energy in your relationship trying to change your partner’s personality, instead put in effort to understand each other’s personality factors as well as your own.

Personality is simply understood as the set of characteristics that lead to consistent patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving. It is one of those things in life that can't change and it tends to stay stable over time. Some might argue you can change aspects of your personality, or your partner’s if you try hard enough. However, this is largely a misconception. What you can do is begin to understand your own personality as well as your partner’s.

There are many personality theories and concepts that can help you understand your own personality and your partners. PREPARE/ENRICH uses SCOPE to help individuals see how high or low they score on each of the five factors of personality (Social, Change, Organised, Pleasing and Emotionally calm).

Personality is simply understood as the set of characteristics that lead to consistent patterns of feeling, thinking and behaving. It is one of those things in life that can't change and it tends to stay stable over time.

Conflict is inevitable in relationships, but if dealt with in a healthy, productive, and respectful way, it can bring you closer as a couple and make your relationship stronger.