We’ve all seen how falling in love has changed our friends (or maybe even ourselves), but too often it’s in the bad way — like when women try hard to impress a guy by being someone they’re not, or when they totally ditch their friends for their new boyfriend. Change gets a bad reputation, but the reality is that a good relationship will definitely change you, it’s just going to be in the best ways possible. Here’s how:
- You become more empathetic. You’ve probably had your moments in the past, but when you’re very close to someone romantically, your feelings are suddenly amplified. For that reason, what they’re going through can feel that much more important to you, as well, which ends up extending to your friends and family, too.
- Some of your walls will come down. A good relationship will encourage you to let down the walls that you don’t need and become a more open, freer version of your best self. A healthy partnership will show you that you don’t need all those walls, and that you’re way better off without them.
- You learn to trust more deeply. Relationships require a lot of trust, but in a good relationship, that trust will be rewarded with a new kind of level of intimacy and closeness. You’ll start to trust yourself more, too, because your intuition about this guy was right.
- You’re a little less selfish. Being a part of a couple can be really different than riding solo, and sometimes it involves sharing, making sacrifices, and doing things that you would have never done on your own. Funny enough, instead of that feeling like a chore, you find that you actually want to do things for and with him.
- You might lose some bad habits. There’s a psychological term called pruning where people stop engaging in their bad habits once they get into relationships. Things like nail biting or any other habit that you think might be considered less than sexy to your guy tend to go out the window, which isn’t a bad thing.
- You have to apologize. Every relationship is going to have its moments of disagreement, and whether you like it or not, learning to genuinely apologize when you’re in the wrong is going to help get past some of them.
- Your world view can expand. Even without physically going anywhere, spending time with a new person can cause your world to expand dramatically. Two different people means double the interests and knowledge. The right guy will open you up to all of life’s possibilities, which is the way it should be.
- You start to consider what’s really important. As fun and whimsical as new romance can be, it can also center you in the moment so you can reassess your priorities. Caring about another person can really jump-start your goal setting and restructure what sort of choices you feel are appropriate for the current state of your life.
- Your perception of love might change. Relationships usually look a lot different from the inside than what we were imagining we wanted before we got in them. In the best circumstances, that means that there are a lot of great surprises and ways of being together that we couldn’t have imagined.
