#184: Understanding the Power Struggle Stage of Relationships
Most relationships move through a phase where things start to feel harder than they used to. The spark has dimmed, tension is bubbling beneath the surface, and it feels like you’re constantly clashing or misfiring. This is what’s often called the power struggle stage — and while it can be incredibly challenging, it’s also a powerful opportunity for growth and deeper intimacy.
Navigating the Power Struggle Stage in Relationships
Most relationships, no matter how healthy or secure, will pass through a phase that feels markedly different to the romantic high of the honeymoon period. It’s called the power struggle stage—and if you’ve ever found yourself wondering what happened to the fun, ease, and excitement you once shared with your partner, chances are you’ve landed right in the thick of it.
This is the chapter where the rose-tinted glasses come off, where the traits you once found charming may now irritate you, and where cracks begin to form in the seemingly perfect connection you were so sure you’d found. It can be a confusing and painful transition—especially if you have an anxious or avoidant attachment style—so let’s unpack what this stage looks like, why it happens, and how to move through it with more grace and self-trust.
What is the Power Struggle Stage?
The power struggle stage typically follows the honeymoon period, that intoxicating early phase of a relationship where everything feels light, hopeful, and full of possibility. You’re swept up in the thrill of new love. You can’t get enough of one another. There’s minimal conflict, high chemistry, and a sense of invincibility. But eventually, reality sets in.
It’s not that anything is necessarily “wrong.” Instead, what begins to emerge is a more complex picture of who each person truly is—beyond the infatuation and idealisation. You might begin to feel more friction, disappointment, or emotional distance. You may find yourself wondering if the person you're with is as perfect a fit as you once thought.
In other words, you’re no longer dating the fantasy. You’re dating a real person.
What Triggers This Stage?
The transition often occurs as expectations start to enter the picture—when we begin asserting more of ourselves in the relationship. You might finally express a need that you were brushing off early on, or you may find yourself irritated by behaviours you previously ignored.
Interestingly, the very things that initially attracted you to your partner might start to grate. Their confidence may begin to feel like arrogance. Their spontaneity now reads as flakiness. This shift can feel jarring and, if you're not prepared for it, can trigger deep-seated fears and coping strategies, especially in anxious-avoidant dynamics.
How Attachment Styles Come Into Play
If you’re anxiously attached, this shift in energy can stir a deep fear that something is wrong—often turning inward as “What did I do wrong?” You may try to return things to how they were by becoming hyper-attuned to your partner, working overtime to reconnect, or slipping into people-pleasing and self-abandonment.
If you lean more avoidant, the shift may leave you feeling pressured, inadequate, or smothered. The initial ease and admiration from your partner might have helped soothe your own fears around not being good enough—but when they begin expressing dissatisfaction or asking for more, it can trigger withdrawal and a fear of being consumed.
These opposing reactions—one partner pulling closer, the other pulling away—often create a cycle of protest, pursuit, and retreat that feels impossible to break.
Is It Just a Phase — Or a Sign to Walk Away?
This is one of the most common questions I hear: “Is this normal, or is it a sign we’re not right for each other?”
While the power struggle is a natural and even necessary part of a maturing relationship, it’s important to discern whether what you’re experiencing is growing pains — or fundamental incompatibility.
If your partner refuses to engage in conversation, continually disrespects your boundaries, or disappears entirely, that’s not just a rough patch. That’s a signal that your needs and values may not be met in the relationship.
But if you're both still engaged — if you’re just getting on each other’s nerves more, having more disagreements, or experiencing a drop in closeness — that’s a very different picture. And there’s every chance you can grow through it together, provided there’s openness, willingness, and mutual respect.
How to Navigate the Power Struggle With Awareness
Here are a few practical and mindset-based tips to help you move through this phase with more steadiness and self-awareness:
1. Manage your expectations
Shifting from idealisation to reality doesn’t mean something is broken. It means you’re relating as two whole humans, rather than projections of one another’s fantasies. This isn’t a sign of failure—it’s a part of maturation.
2. Name what’s happening
You don’t need a heavy talk about “entering the power struggle stage,” but it can be helpful to say something like, “Hey, I feel like we’ve been getting on each other’s nerves more lately. Want to talk about it?” Neutrality opens doors.
3. Practice healthy differentiation
Resist the urge to merge. Especially for anxiously attached folks, it’s important to maintain some separateness. You’re allowed to have your own life, routines, and space. In fact, doing so makes the relationship stronger, not weaker.
4. Build your conflict skills
Conflict is inevitable. The real test is how you handle it. Can you stay connected through the rupture? Can you repair? Can you both feel seen and heard? This is where real intimacy is built.
5. Be discerning, not desperate
If the relationship is showing signs of emotional unavailability, disrespect, or serious incompatibilities—trust yourself. The power struggle stage doesn’t mean you should tolerate anything and everything. Know your non-negotiables.
Final Thoughts
The power struggle stage is not the end of love — it’s the beginning of what can be a transition into mature, lasting love. The kind that makes space for two messy, wonderful humans to co-create something grounded, lasting, and meaningful. With self-awareness, communication, and mutual care, this chapter doesn’t have to break you.
Questions for Discussion & Reflection
Reflect on a time when you transitioned from the honeymoon stage to the power struggle stage in a past or present relationship. How did you feel during this transition, and what did you learn about yourself and your partner?
How do you typically react when you notice friction or conflict emerging in your relationships? Are there specific patterns or behaviours you fall into, and how might these be tied to your attachment style?
Consider the idea that the power struggle stage can be seen as "growing pains." How does reframing it this way change your perception of conflicts and challenges in your relationship?
Evaluate your current or past relationships regarding the level of communication during the power struggle stage. Do you tend to openly discuss issues, or do you find it difficult to voice your needs and frustrations?
Reflect on the qualities that initially attracted you to your partner. Have any of these qualities become sources of irritation or conflict? How do you perceive these traits now, and what does that say about the evolution of your relationship?
When encountering the power struggle stage, do you feel the urge to fix things immediately, or are you more inclined to withdraw? How can you balance your instinctual responses with more constructive strategies?
Consider the concept of separateness within a relationship. Do you find it challenging to maintain your individuality, especially when you're feeling anxious about the relationship? How can you prioritise both connection and personal space?
Think about the role of expectation management in relationships. How have your expectations influenced your reactions to changes and challenges within your relationship?
Reflect on the idea that conflict management is crucial for relationship longevity. How can you and your partner work together to address conflicts in a way that strengthens your bond rather than drives you apart?
Have you ever experienced a "deal breaker" scenario in a relationship related to fundamental compatibility issues, as discussed in the episode? How did you handle it, and what insights did you gain from that experience?
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Episode Transcript
[00:00:04]:
In today's episode, we are talking all about the power struggle stage of a relationship, which is a stage that pretty much every relationship will go through, and it can be really challenging. It's the stage that follows the honeymoon period, and that initial period where you're so swept up in the love and the lust and the excitement and the chemistry, that fresh love feeling where you want to spend every moment of every day with your partner, and they feel the same way, and everything feels hopeful and optimistic, and you might be having these thoughts and feelings like, this person's the one, and finally I've found someone, and it feels so great.' And then it transitions into something where there's a little more friction, where you start to rub each other the wrong way, where you start to feel annoyed or upset or disappointed. The fall from grace can be really jarring. And particularly if you've got more anxious avoidant dynamics at play, it can stir up a lot of core wounds on both sides and all of the self protective strategies that accompany those core wounds. And that's where we see a lot of the really typical anxious avoidant conflict cycles starting to bubble up, and we know how hard that can be, and it can feel like you get really stuck there. So today I'm going to be talking about that and sharing some tips for navigating the power struggle stage, some things that you should expect, some ways of approaching that both strategically and from a mindset point of view, because I think it's really easy to find yourself in that kind of dynamic of panic.
[00:02:10]:
Obviously, if you're more anxious, that's the inclination is, oh no, we've gone from being really connected to feeling disconnected or things feel a bit wobbly or hard, and that stirs within you this sense of 'something's wrong, maybe I've done something wrong, maybe I need to do things differently', and going into overdrive trying to fix it and get things back to the way they were. That's a really common experience. So, I want to share some things today that will hopefully help you to feel a little more prepared and grounded if you're in a relationship that does transition into this power struggle stage. And as I said, almost all relationships will experience some version of this, so that you can feel like it's not the end of the world. It doesn't mean that it's all over. It's almost just like growing pains as we find our way into something a little more steady and stable. So that's what we're going to be talking about today, and I'll also share some signs that it is just those growing pains, versus some signs of maybe it's not compatible, or maybe it's something to walk away from in case you're left wondering, should I be continuing to invest in this? Now before we get into today's episode, a couple of quick announcements. Just a reminder about some of the free resources that I have on my website.
[00:03:22]:
I know a lot of you have been signing up for the Anxious Attachment Starter Kit over the past few weeks, which is really great because that is a wonderful resource for anyone who hasn't signed up for that yet or who's interested. You can head to my website there's a freebies page on my website that has all of the free resources listed, or it's also linked in the show notes. But the Anxious Attachment Starter Kit in particular is a really comprehensive resource. It has a video lesson about how I healed my own anxious attachment, there's a workbook, and there's also a guided meditation which is self soothing affirmations for anxious attachment. In addition to that, I have a free master class on anxious avoidant relationships, where anxious avoidant couples go wrong, and how to fix it. Again, that's a really comprehensive resource if you're in this kind of dynamic and what we talk about today, if that resonates with you, that might be one to check out because it's going to help you see the pattern in a more neutral way so that you can identify 'what's my part in this dance', 'where am I contributing to maybe the unhealthy or dysfunctional patterns that we find ourselves stuck in', and what should I be focusing on to start cleaning up my side of the street so that we can start to shift out of some of these patterns. As you know, if you're familiar with my work, I am an optimist when it comes to these dynamics. I don't think it's doomed.
[00:04:36]:
I don't think that you should just give up and throw in the towel and go and find a secure partner. You're welcome to try and do that, but I do think that there's hope provided that certain conditions are met and both people have a base level of willingness and open heartedness. Okay, so let's talk about the power struggle stage of a relationship. Now, as I said in the introduction, this typically follows the honeymoon period, and I know that people will always ask, what time period are we talking about? Are we talking about after a month, or a year? And to be honest, it's a little nebulous. I think it depends a lot on the circumstances and the pace at which your relationship has progressed. So for some people, they might stay in a honeymoon period for a year or two years even. I mean, I think two years would be a long time to be in the honeymoon period. For others it might be a month.
[00:05:23]:
And the reason for that is, it's much less about a period of time and more about the backdrop to the relationship. And I think that when we're in the honeymoon period, it's usually characterized by lots of excitement and optimism and time spent together, but with relatively low pressure and expectation. And I think when we're in that honeymoon period, we probably haven't really voiced many needs. We maybe haven't gone through hard things together. We're really on cloud nine, and it all just feels light and fun and connected and exciting. And so the power struggle stage tends to arise and we tend to find ourselves transitioning into it when maybe we start to have more expectations of a partner, maybe we start to assert more of ourselves, maybe we start to be a little more honest about our needs or our preferences. Again, in that honeymoon period, we tend to be really like, 'go with the flow', and we give someone the benefit of the doubt, and we don't want to be too serious, So we kind of park all of that stuff, whereas in the power struggle stage, we start to occupy a little more space, and we do have more expectations of a partner. And so what we might have originally brushed off or not been bothered by, we start to think we're in a proper relationship now and we should be able to talk about this, or I should be able to tell you that thing annoyed me, or when you showed up ten minutes late, actually I'm not okay with that, whereas at the start you might have been a little bit more flexible or easy breezy or whatever because you didn't want to be too serious or bring down the vibe.
[00:07:02]:
And so all of these things start to come up in the power struggle stage. Another really common signifier that you're in this stage is that things that you originally were attracted to start to grate on you, or you start to find annoying. And that can be because often at the very start of a relationship, whether we realize it or not, we're drawn to traits and qualities in someone that are very different to us, that are the opposite of us. So you might be really drawn to someone's exuberance or confidence, and that might be really intriguing to you, and you find yourself quite magnetized towards that quality. But as you transition into the power struggle stage, what you originally interpreted and perceived as confidence, you might start to read that as arrogance, and it might really trigger you. Similarly, you might be really drawn to someone's free spirited nature at the start, and you think that's just so amazing that they're so free spirited. But in the power struggle stage, you start to see that free spiritedness as flaky and unreliable, right? And oftentimes it's because they are different to you, so you might be drawn to the free spiritedness of someone from a place of being quite rigid yourself. And so that feels like, Wow, look at this creature who's so different to me.
[00:08:21]:
But then when you're in the power struggle stage and the veneer has worn off a little, you're like, oh, this person's so different to me. And I'm starting to see that I do have to compromise on those things and that can bring up some friction and some irritation. So those are some of the signs that you might be venturing into this power struggle territory that you're starting to have little conflicts, you're starting to get annoyed with each other, you may be communicating less, there's maybe less physical affection, maybe less sexual intimacy, that can be a really big one. That, you know, if you can't keep your hands off each other at the start, and you have this really passionate sex life, and then it starts to give way to something that feels a little less steamy and a little more routine. All of these can be signs that you're in that power struggle stage. Now, as you're listening to this, you might be nodding in recognition, knowing that you've been in that power struggle experience before. Maybe you're in it right now. And I think what makes this all the more challenging is if you are coming from anxious avoidant attachment dynamics, you would know, particularly on the anxious attachment side, that anything that feels like less connection, less closeness, less warmth, less fun, less affection, right, like anything that feels like a step down is going to be super triggering, because it's going to bring you into contact with your abandonment fears, your fear of rejection, your unworthiness, this sense of, they liked me, and now they like me less, so what have I done? Why are they annoyed at me? Why are we fighting? How do I get back to where we were?' And I think when you don't have the context for this, you don't know that the power struggle stage is actually completely normal, it's really easy to internalize everything that's going on, take it very personally, feel very hurt, very confused, very rejected.
[00:10:13]:
And that can then trigger all of your behaviors. Things like testing and maybe sulking or really shrinking and trying to occupy less space. Do whatever you can tiptoe around it because you you are taking on this sense of having done something wrong, that you start shape shifting and just, like, trying to be whatever you need to be in order to get things back to where they were. Because that tends not to happen, we don't tend to go back into the honeymoon period from the power struggle stage, relationships move forward, they evolve, they mature, you feel this sense of failure and wrongness, like, why isn't it working? I don't know what I'm doing wrong here. And so that tends to really fuel your anxious loops, and that cycle of shame that you can get stuck in, where the core belief that's like, I must be doing something wrong, people always leave me, this always happens, I can feel it, they're pulling away. That then triggers all of your behaviors that can actually bring to fruition the thing you fear most. Right? The pushing and the clinging and the anxious bids for reassurance all the time can trigger them into further withdrawal or further feeling unsure about the relationship, particularly if they're coming from the more avoidant side. And let's talk about that.
[00:11:32]:
So the avoidant side, for you in the power struggle stage as an anxious person, you're being brought into contact with those fears around, 'They're going to leave me, they don't like me anymore, maybe I revealed too much of myself and they didn't like what they saw.' For the avoidant person, remembering that their stuff, their core wounds, are around feeling inadequate, feeling like a disappointment, really wanting to be seen as good and successful, but feeling like people always want more from me than I can give them. I always end up disappointing people. And then the whole set of fears around feeling smothered, feeling controlled, or loss of self. And so, while at the beginning of a relationship, someone with more avoidant patterns isn't really triggered in those ways, because it is, you know, light and fun and connected, and their partner tends to think the world of them and they can do no wrong. Anxious partners tend to really put avoidant partners on a pedestal at the start, and vice versa I would say. But certainly, for an anxious partner who just thinks that the avoidant person they're dating is so amazing and is so infatuated, that feels so good for someone with avoidant attachment who does have these fears around being unsuccessful, being a disappointment, being inadequate or a failure. And so when the anxious partner starts to come up with more things of, like, you know, you you've let me down, or I'm not satisfied, or you're not meeting my needs, or all of a sudden starting to assert more of these things that they might have been letting slide to begin with, that can really hurt for the avoidant partner. They can start to go, you know, what changed here? You were happy with me and now you're upset with me all the time.' And that can really trigger their patterns of deactivation and withdrawal.
[00:13:24]:
Once the anxious partner responds to that with all of the behaviors I was just talking about, all of those activating strategies of, I have to try and reverse this, or get closer, or see what's going on, get reassurance, then that tends to trigger the avoidant partner's fear of engulfment, of being smothered, of being controlled, and that contributes to this overall impression for the avoidant partner of 'things were good, and now they're too hard', or this is feeling not good anymore'. Particularly if the avoidant person in this example is maybe lacking a little in self awareness, it's really easy for them to convince themselves that maybe this just isn't the right person. And then that can lead them into all of their withdrawal, pulling away, and potentially even leaving the relationship. So that is one of the real challenges of an anxious avoidant dynamic in this power struggle stage, is it serves up on a platter all of your stuff on both sides, and it can be really triggering. And so if it's not handled with a level of awareness and strategy, I would say. Not in the sense of game playing, but more in terms of knowing yourself and dealing with it in an informed way. It's really easy to just follow those cycles into a place of either the relationship dissolving because the anxious partner ramps up, the avoidant partner pulls away, and ultimately isn't invested enough to stick around, and so pulls the pin and walks away. The anxious person is left feeling abandoned and rejected and confused about what they did wrong.
[00:14:58]:
Or you stay in it, but you keep swirling around, and this power struggle stage, while it's certainly possible to then transition into something more steady and stable, a lot of people stay in some version of the power struggle for months and years. Some people will have a whole lifetime, a marriage of thirty years, that is just the power struggle stage. So depending on the nature of the people involved, some people will stay in it, others will pull the pin and it will unravel. So, let's talk about some strategies for actually getting through the power struggle stage to the other side, how to approach it in the best way possible. So, one of the most important things, and it sounds very simple, but I promise it can make a world of difference, is managing your expectations. Because I think so much of what triggers that cycle, and that spiral, particularly on the anxious side, and to an extent on the avoidant side as well, is thinking, because I'm feeling this way, something must be very wrong. Because all of a sudden things have shifted, that means something, that's a sign that there's something wrong with me or them or the relationship. And so I think if we're going into it being like, oh, this is a normal part of the maturation process of a relationship, it makes sense that the infatuation and the idealization has given way to something where I'm actually seeing my partner as a messy human being, and they have traits that I really like and traits that kind of grate on me, and that is fine, and they're going to see me in the same way, and I'm allowed to be a flawed person, as are they.
[00:16:29]:
Having that actually realistic expectation around what it means to be in a relationship with a whole person, where you're both bringing your stuff to the table, that can, in and of itself, that small shift in mindset and expectation can really change your internal environment in terms of how you relate to that transition and the fact that you're in that. If you think it's just a normal part of the process of being in a relationship, then it's unlikely to provoke the same stress response in you that sets off the cascade. So realizing this is not in and of itself some big emergency, something that I need to try and reverse engineer or undo or backpedal around, this is a normal part of growth. And these are growing pains and things that we can work through rather than things that we need to urgently get rid of, because that sense of urgency and emergency is what can really make things a lot worse and actually entrench you in those dysfunctional patterns. Now, I think another really helpful thing to do can be to name it, and not from a place of, we need to sit down and have a really serious conversation about the fact that we have now entered the power struggles stage, right? But what you can do is just say, Hey, I feel like we're getting on each other's nerves a bit at the moment. Do you want to talk about it? I think you can just be open without being really heavy or accusatory or blaming, and you certainly don't need to be defensive. Again, I think when we're internalizing a shift as being our fault and something we've done wrong, we're naturally more prone to defensiveness because we want to push away the idea that we've done something wrong. So I think if we can just be somewhat neutral about it, then that's going to stand us in really good stead to have a conversation where we can actually go, like, okay, if there are things that feel sticky and that we're maybe not resolving in a very constructive way.
[00:18:28]:
Let's talk about that. Let's find a solution. You seem to be getting a bit annoyed at me for x y z things, and I'm feeling a little frustrated with you when this happens. Like, why don't we just find a path forward that works for both of us so that we can both be feeling good? I think that's a really, really positive way of framing it and actually allows you to grow through the experience as a couple and gives you the opportunity to work through conflict, which is such an essential relationship skill, and actually is going to make you so much stronger than if you just never had the conflict and you stayed in honeymoon land forever, because that's not real life. And I always say to people, it's not about avoiding conflict, it's 'who are you going to do conflict with well?' that's a much better litmus test for whether a relationship is going to go the distance. It's do we band together when things get hard, or does conflict drive us apart? So, see this as training ground, right? As an opportunity for you to deepen in your understanding of one another, your understanding of yourself and your own patterns, and what it means to compromise in a healthy way that isn't self abandonment, that isn't rigidity, that's actually finding a balanced path forward that feels good for both people and being able to talk about that in a healthy way. I think another thing to be mindful of, and again, this is probably speaking more to the anxious attaches, is it's okay to have a bit more separateness as you transition into this power struggle stage, because your preference is likely to be as much contact and connection and closeness as humanly possible, and sometimes in the honeymoon period your partner will meet you in that desire, and so you'll be texting all day every day, and you'll be seeing each other every night or four times a week or whatever. You'll be having sleepovers and long mornings in bed or whatever, and then they start to pull away and that starts to feel like too much, and you go, like, but you wanted that as well, and now you're saying it's too much, and that can feel a bit confusing, and maybe there's been a bait and switch.
[00:20:37]:
Just recognize that level of intensity is probably unsustainable. So it's not like you've done something wrong, it's not like they've been misleading in a deliberate way, it's just that starting at 100% intensity and maintaining 100% intensity for an entire relationship is not really going to happen. Right? And so I think that again, it's about calibrating our expectations to something that's, 'If this is going to last the distance, I can survive with not texting them all day every day while I'm at work and they're at work, and not feeling like there's some sudden void from that change in pace and change of intensity. And this is why I really emphasize so much that from the outset, if you can, try to go at a reasonable pace. Right? Don't go to a hundred and then be really upset and confused when things pull back a little because they just will because it's not sustainable. Try and hold on to your routines, try and maintain catching up with other people, not just clearing the calendar to be completely available to them all the time, and then feeling hurt and rejected. Still be your own person, and I think the power struggle stage is a really good time to actually practice that because your instinct is probably going to be, 'as soon as things feel hard, I'm going to go even more all in on trying to fix the relationship, and being preoccupied with the relationship, thinking about it all the time, wanting to be available at all hours for my partner in case they want to hang out with me. All of those things are expressions of your anxiety, and they're also going to exacerbate your anxiety.
[00:22:13]:
Trying to remain differentiated in that period is going to ultimately provide a more solid foundation for your relationship that will allow you to come to those conversations that you might be having from a more grounded, self assured place, self confident place, and also to feel like my whole world isn't going to come crashing down if this relationship ends, because there's more going on in my world than just this relationship. And that's really good advice always for anxiously attached people. And the last thing that I said that I would talk about is, well, how do I know if, you know, it's actually just incompatibility that has been revealed, if it's actually better to just pull the pin and cut my losses and walk away because all of a sudden things are not feeling good. And that's always a possibility, right? I don't want to tell you that every relationship issue should be worked through, and that every couple is destined to be together. Of course, that isn't the case. So I think ultimately it's going to be subjective, and only you can make that call I know that's not what you want to hear. But things that I would look for: if someone is completely unwilling to talk about anything, that's going to be hard to work with. Obviously, if only one person is open to even having conversations about things that might not be feeling good, it's really hard to build something with someone who is a bit of a brick wall and who's shutting you out altogether.
[00:23:30]:
If someone is cutting communication with you, if someone's just disappearing all of a sudden, you've gone from spending all this time together to essentially being ghosted, That is not, to me, something that I'd be encouraging you to necessarily continue to pour more investment into. You know, what I'm really talking about in this power struggle stage is, like, we're both still in this, but things are feeling harder, things are feeling more challenging, there is friction, there is tension where previously there wasn't, and that is triggering for you. If someone's just, like, really behaving badly in a way that feels disrespectful and wildly inconsistent, unreliable, and you're left completely in the dark, that's not really what I'm talking about here. And that's where I would really encourage you to get clear on, what are my deal breakers? What are my non negotiables? What am I available for in a relationship?' And if it's falling way short of those that you've set for yourself, which I hope that you have set for yourself, then feel free to just say this isn't for me', rather than trying to problem solve and workshop with someone who's just not treating you well. And the other thing I'll say is, if it is revealed in time that you have structural incompatibilities around things like one of you wants kids the other doesn't, one of you wants to get married the other doesn't, you want to live in separate places, all of those sorts of things that are kind of binary, As I've said many times before, those are deal breakers. And it's okay for them to be deal breakers if they are deal breakers for you. Right? Back yourself in wanting what you want for your life, and even if you're really attached to someone, if they have a fundamentally different vision for their life, and you're both clear on that, and it is black and white, then I think the earlier you can disentangle yourself and detach from that, the better. Because otherwise you're going to be causing yourself some heartbreak down the line if it's ultimately a dead end relationship.
[00:25:21]:
Okay. I'm going to leave it there. I really hope that it's been helpful. I hope that it's given you a bit of relief if you are in this phase at the moment and you're wondering what the hell is going on, what have I done? Hopefully you can feel comforted by the fact that it is not just you. It's really really common, it's almost a rite of passage for couples, but there are certainly things that you can do and not do that will help you to move through that phase in a way that feels like a growing together rather than just spinning around in dysfunction and chaos and painful conflict cycles which never end and which leave you both feeling much worse off. So hope that it's been helpful. If you've enjoyed today's episode, I really would be so grateful if you would leave a rating or a review if you're watching on YouTube. Leave a comment there, let me know. But otherwise, I look forward to seeing you again next week. Thanks, guys.
[00:26:12]:
Thanks for joining me for this episode of On Attachment. If you wanna go deeper on all things attachment, love, and relationships, you can find me on Instagram @stephanie__rigg or at stephanierigg.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, I'd be so grateful if you could leave a review and a 5 star rating. It really does help so much. Thanks again for being here, and I hope to see you again soon.
Keywords from Podcast Episode
Power struggle stage, Honeymoon period, Relationship dynamics, Anxious avoidant, Core wounds, Insecurity, Conflict cycles, Growing pains, Disconnected feelings, Anxious attachment, Avoidant attachment, Relationship change, Expectations in relationships, Communication in relationships, Emotional triggers, Relationship maturity, Attachment patterns, Conflict resolution, Self-awareness, Relationship compatibility, Relationship investment, Intimacy changes, Attachment strategy, Differentiation in relationships, Emotional grounding, Relationship intensity, Conflict skills, Deal breakers, Emotional reassurance, Partner expectations