What defines our relationship?
Understanding the 5 stages of love and relationships that couples must navigate with the help of Bangkok Matching, premier Thai Dating Agency
There’s no sweetness that lasts forever in love and relationships! Bangkok Matching, Thailand’s high-end dating and matchmaking agency, begins this discussion because we want everyone to realize that relationships have their own life cycles, no different from everything else in this world. The initial sweetness during the getting-to-know-each-other phase or the sweet nothings whispered during the early stages inevitably fade as time goes by. However, you and your partner will hold hands and navigate through these periods together, or bid farewell here, for reasons and factors that are more defining than just the words “love” or “not love”. Sometimes, love alone doesn’t guarantee a lasting relationship. Hence, it’s clear why some seemingly loving couples part ways after a short time of understanding each other. It’s because they both can’t pass through the hurdles in each stage of the relationship.
The phenomenon of relationships ending before reaching their destination is commonly observed, yet many couples lack awareness of the different stages of relationships, leading to breakups at various points. Beliefs in numerical superstitions, such as the warning of the “7-year itch,” often attribute these breakups to specific timeframes. However, Bangkok Matching must clarify that the termination of relationships is not solely due to numerical values. Numbers cannot dictate the fate of a relationship; rather, it’s the inability of both individuals to navigate through to the end. This phase is marked by a decrease in the brain’s dopamine, a neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of infatuation and attraction. If we examine statistics from relationship advice websites like “Love at First Fight,” it’s evident that around 50% of breakups occur after the initial surge of dopamine stops. Hence, it’s apparent that many factors contribute to the ability of couples to continue together.
So, what does love entail? When love alone isn’t sufficient, it’s crucial to delve into the details to understand how to sustain a relationship. Everyone needs to be aware that building a lasting relationship requires preparation to encounter various situations, emotional patterns, and forms of affection. Bangkok Matching, Thailand’s reputable matchmaking agency for singles, will elaborate further as follows:
Let’s take a look at the 5 crucial stages of relationships that indicate whether we and our partners can survive together. These 5 stages of relationships are categorized by Dr. Susan Campbell, following research conducted on over a thousand couples:
1 The Romantic Love Stage: Certainly, in the initial stage of love when feelings emerge, dopamine in the brain is released when we talk and meet, making us feel excited and infatuated. Everything seems rosy and perfect, with a desire to talk and see each other every day. This stage is like a trap in the relationship, where many couples believe these feelings will last forever. However, in reality, these intense feelings typically last no more than a year. After that, you move on to the next stage of the relationship.
2 The Self-Discovery Stage: Recognizing Red Flags: When dopamine decreases or stops, you begin to see the reality of the relationship more clearly. You start noticing desirable and undesirable behaviors of your partner that you might have overlooked initially due to infatuation. This stage is marked by a power struggle, where both parties fight to assert themselves. If both sides understand, communicate openly, and find solutions together, the relationship has a chance to continue. Otherwise, many relationships end at this stage, as mentioned earlier, around 50%.
3 The Establishment of Stability: Congratulations if your relationship has progressed to this stage! You’ve passed the second hurdle of the relationship journey. In this stage, you begin to understand the multidimensional patterns of the relationship. The excitement of love remains, but it transforms into stability based on understanding and mutual support. It typically takes 3-5 years for couples to reach this stage, or even sooner if there is good understanding from the beginning.
4 The Commitment Stage: After understanding and accepting each other, the next stage is commitment. This involves formalizing the relationship socially through engagement, marriage, or other ceremonies that indicate a serious commitment under the law. It’s about building a life together as a legal couple, separate from both families, and starting a new journey together. This stage requires promises and legal agreements that bind each other.
5 The Family Building Stage: Once you’ve transitioned from being partners to being legally married, the next stage is building a family together. This involves starting to live together in shared space and adjusting to each other’s habits and preferences. While the adjustments may not be as challenging as in the previous stages, it’s important to remain vigilant as divorce rates in Thailand have been steadily increasing. Therefore, to ensure the survival of your family life, continue to nurture your relationship with sweetness, tight communication, and a strong bond, just like in the initial stages of your relationship.
Even though you and your partner have overcome hurdles to reach the family-building stage, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be cautious of future issues. With divorce rates on the rise in Thailand, it’s essential to continue adding sweetness, fostering understanding, and maintaining a solid relationship just like when you first started dating.
3 Expert Tips from Matchmaker Mom: How to Sustain a Relationship
Whether a relationship thrives or not doesn’t depend on just one person. It’s not solely one person’s responsibility to carry the relationship until exhaustion. Both individuals must support and nurture it with love, understanding, and communication. If you don’t want to succumb to obstacles or let the erosion of time deteriorate the relationship, Bangkok Matching offers 5 excellent tips to maintain relationships.
1 Clear and Transparent Communication: Feelings should not be kept bottled up. Suppressing emotions, whether bitterness, dissatisfaction, or other issues, is like planting a time bomb. Eventually, everything will explode, making it difficult to maintain a healthy relationship in the long run.
2 Establish Clear Mutual Goals: When committing to a relationship, it’s not a casual affair. Many hope for a partner to walk the path together in the long run. No one wants to switch partners frequently, as dating becomes repetitive and exhausting. Therefore, when reaching a certain stage in a relationship, discussing future plans and understanding each other’s needs becomes crucial. Communication in this regard should be sensitive, as emotions can easily be affected.
3 Consistently Express Positive Feelings: There’s no need to wait for special occasions to express affection. Adding sweetness and uniqueness to the relationship regularly keeps it exciting, fresh, and impressive. Sometimes, long-term couples tend to overlook this, thinking it’s unnecessary. However, this can lead to doubts about the depth of love or satisfaction within the relationship.
In its role as a top-tier matchmaking agency, Bangkok Matching has provided matchmaking services for over 18 years, boasting a success rate of over 85%. We offer comprehensive relationship counseling to our clients, assisting numerous couples. Ultimately, whether a couple successfully navigates the 5 stages of a relationship to achieve their goals depends on their mutual understanding, commitment, openness, and willingness to follow expert advice. While external factors may play a role, it’s challenging to control them. However, with mutual trust, sincerity, open communication, and adaptation, couples can certainly increase their chances of surviving together.”
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