A large age gap between a romantic couple always sparks controversy in modern society, no matter how happy the couple in question seem together. Although my personal experience with age-gap relationships is far from an extreme example, my current relationship would probably be considered one by some people. I am four years older than Heidi, which may not seem significant but due to the fact we were both fairly young when we first started dating, we did have to deal with a mild amount of external judgement at the time. This mainly came from two sources, each with slightly different sentiments: first was Heidi’s family whose feelings were that of concern and secondly were some of my friends whose opinions were portrayed more in the form of humorous teasing. In my experience of speaking to other couples in relationships with differing ages, these are the two sorts of external judgement that are most common in this situation.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 4th, 2009 at 3:28 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Relationships.
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Many relationship gurus harp on about respect in relationships but it is not something that you can have with the flick of a switch… Respect from your partner is something that you earn over time. It is the key to building true friendships and it is also most certainly the key to building a solid, long-lasting relationship! It may take a while to build this solid foundation of respect but it only takes a minute to lose it all so it is useful to have some instructions to keep in mind as the relationship progresses. The following list contains ten ways to earn your partner’s complete respect…

1.) Have strong boundaries:

In a relationship, you want to clearly identify for yourself how you want to be treated and define what behaviour is acceptable and what is unacceptable early on. You don’t need to be ruthless with your values but the moment you let your partner walk over or manipulate you even once, is when you lose all respect. This should be a mutual setup where you are also willing to respect your partner’s boundaries, even if they differ from yours. [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 at 4:55 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Relationships.
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Whether you are single, in a monogamous relationship or anywhere in between, the foundation to having a successful and happy dating life or relationship is in learning how to communicate with other people effectively, which is the essence of being ‘sociable’.

When I was in my early teens I always thought that you were either born with great social skills or you had to make do without. There were kids in school who seemed to make no effort to have swarms of friends and be the life of all social functions. The truth is that being sociable is a learnt skill and no matter how extroverted you were taught to be when growing up, everyone can practice being more sociable. Being able to have positive interactions with all the people you meet will certainly enrich many aspects of your life.

In order to become more outgoing in general, it’s all very well being told, “just get out there and force yourself to be”. Unfortunately humans aren’t always the best at forcing themselves to break habits and do new things. A far more balmy method to become more sociable is to put yourself in a situation where you are forced to interact with other people by default… [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, July 21st, 2009 at 3:23 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Dating.
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Do you have sexual fantasies that you keep to yourself?

Is there a sexual fantasy you have that you really want your girlfriend or boyfriend to try but don’t know how to approach it?

Starting a new sexual relationship is one of the most exciting and exhilarating times but it doesn’t take long for sex with the same person to become monotonous. From the people willing to divulge aspects of their sex-lives it seems it is all too common for relationships that have surpassed the one-year mark (especially ones that have gone far beyond that) to have a sex-life that consists of a predetermined routine, devoid of all the passion, excitement and discovery of the initial period.

This article will talk about ways to get your girlfriend or boyfriend more sexually expressive as well as get them more interested in trying new things in the bedroom (or anywhere else you might have sex)…

Sexual Polarity:

Sexual polarity is something that David Deida as well as many other ‘sexperts’ talk about, whereby true sexual fulfilment for a couple requires both a masculine and a feminine counterpart. In more relevant language this means that for ongoing sexual attraction and passion in a relationship, there needs to be one person who is more sexually dominant and one person who plays a more submissive role during sex. [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, June 25th, 2009 at 6:07 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Sex.
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The ego is the human-mind’s way of distinguishing itself from the selves of others and objects of its thought and although everyone possesses an ego to exist, the degree to which people let it meddle with their relationships varies considerably.

There are three main instances in romantic relationships where the ego is directly reacting to the situation and this article aims to explain each of those instances clearly so you can determine yourself just how deadly your ego is in your relationship…

How much do you like your partner?

It sounds silly to question how much you like your partner… You wouldn’t be with them if you didn’t like them, right?

Personal qualities and physical attributes go without saying… Humans have an innate intuition as well as a logical function regarding these two factors. What I’m referring to here is how much you like your partner on a deep, subconscious level. In other words, are you with your partner because you share a deep connection and it actively adds to your external happiness or are you with them to feel a more complete sense of self-worth? Humans have an inherent desire to feel loved so it’s not something that anyone should be ashamed to admit. It is worth thinking about though if you want to know if you are going to experience real love and everlasting happiness with your partner. [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 10th, 2009 at 8:44 am by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Relationships.
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Having a ‘movie evening’ with someone in any sort of romantic fashion actually requires a fair bit of investment and commitment to a potential relationship, so whilst it doesn’t make a particularly good first date, watching a movie together makes a great second or third date. Whilst I am by no means a renowned movie expert, I still get asked occasionally for movie recommendations for dates, which is the inspiration for this article.

To be honest, the actual choice of movie isn’t all that important (although I will give some suggestions later in this article); it’s more about the time spent together and developing the interaction between the two of you, so as long as the selection isn’t yawn-inducing, it should be fine. Having said that, in this article I will give a few things to think about regarding this topic, which conveniently ties in with how to make decisions on almost ANYTHING date related…

Choosing a movie for a date:

The reason watching a movie at home with someone you are romantically interested in is such a great idea in the early stages of dating is that it breeds familiarity and is an easy way to start building romantic intimacy and rapport, without too much pressure. Also, if you pick the right sort of movie, you can help curb the energy levels and emotional stimulus of the relationship, as explained in the following summary: [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, May 21st, 2009 at 3:02 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Dating.
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I’d like to start off by saying that I do not condone cheating as a general practice but too many couples react far too cut and dry when they find out their partner has cheated, rather than sit back and analyse the actual root cause of the infidelity. My personal definition of cheating is quite concise so I already know how I am going to react if I am ever faced with the scenario… Rationally and within the context of the specific situation!

The fact of the matter is that if someone wants to cheat on you, although what I outlined in the popular article ‘The ONLY way to prevent your partner cheating’ is a great ideal to pursue, there’s no one instantaneous thing you can do to passively stop them. You can however deal with it in a multitude of different ways.

In this article I will start by giving some definitions of what constitutes as cheating and then explain why if these are dishonoured there are a lot bigger issues at work than the actual act of cheating itself… [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Monday, May 11th, 2009 at 10:36 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Relationships.
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As I have said before, arguments with a partner generally stem from not feeling loved, valued or respected enough. Humans are creatures of emotion and instances, so it is almost impossible to avoid arguments one hundred percent of the time.

The skill though is to recognise arguments early and if avoiding them is not possible then trying to move through them in the most amicable and beneficial way for your relationship is the number one priority. Below are a number of ways to deal with arguments in a relationship…

Misconceptions surrounding arguments in relationships:

Some people claim that arguments are “healthy in relationships” and others state that “you only argue with the people you love”. Whilst these have some truth to them, they are rationalising the problem from an extrinsic source.

The reason why someone would think that arguments are healthy in relationships is because they produce a profound spike of emotions. A heavy third of attraction is based around creating emotional spikes, and negative emotions in a relationship often SEEM better than neutral or passive emotions.

When someone refers to arguments being healthy, what they actually mean is that the emotional rollercoaster of feeling their partner cares and the bliss of the making-up period is conducive to the relationship as a whole. There are better ways of achieving this though and whilst a strong will and display of emotions is imperative to a long-lasting relationship, you want to always try to make them wholly positive emotions. You don’t have to argue to express your feelings or to have a ‘making-up’ period! [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 28th, 2009 at 4:32 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Relationships.
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In the conclusion to the article ‘The ONLY way to prevent your partner cheating’, I talked about being the best boyfriend or girlfriend possible. Below is a list of ten attributes that can help you be the best boyfriend or girlfriend possible…

1.) Lead an attractive lifestyle:

An attractive lifestyle is something you should be constantly trying to optimise if you want to live a happy and fulfilling life and the more happy and fulfilling your own life is, the more happy and fulfilling your partner’s will be… Emotions are contagious!

There is a common piece of dating advice that says ‘bring them into your world’ and it definitely carries on into relationships too. Humans are creatures of habit and routine and so there is nothing more exciting than being incorporated into an exciting and new attractive lifestyle.

An attractive lifestyle is made up of many aspects: having a healthy social life with lots of interesting people in it, having exciting hobbies and creating opportunities such as travelling are all wonderful things to be able to include your partner in. [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 22nd, 2009 at 3:34 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Relationships.
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My last article was about how to advance your dating life and social life in general by starting to approach and meet more people in everyday life. I thought I would write a somewhat related article before diverging into more in-depth relationship topics once more.

This article focuses on a dating principle that is often conducted inefficiently, if conducted at all…

The most important principle in dating:

One of the most disregarded pieces of the dating puzzle is the process of telling someone why you like them. If you’ve ever had someone stand you up for a date… If you’ve ever had someone you like not return your calls or texts… If you’ve ever had someone seem really interested in you and then witness that interest swiftly plummet without explanation… This is probably the reason!

It seems simple in principle but so many people fail to actually tell people they are attracted to what it is they actually like about them beyond their physical appearance. A result of this is that the other person will always be thinking “hmm are they only after one thing… Do they actually like ME?” Admittedly, this is more of a common thought amongst women than men, as dating culture has set men up to be the pursuers, who will generally reap ANY reciprocated interest.

Whatever your intentions are, if you don’t tell someone what you like about them early on, any future relationship is going to start in a staggered fashion, if at all. [Continue reading this post...]

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This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 1:36 pm by Samuel McCrohan and is filed under Dating.
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