Three years ago I met the man of my dreams. He is compassionate, funny, and bears a smile that, to this day, attracts my whole body's attention. He is, hands down, the most amazing man I've ever met. Three years ago I began to learn facts about this man, the man to whom I am now engaged to be married to. Even now, three years in, I am still learning him and I am also still learning ME (mostly learning what it means to be the best version of me in this relationship). From the

Relationships aren't meant to be confining. They aren't meant to make us feel like we have to "walk on egg shells" or that we need to "act a certain way" in order to pease our partner, or worse, to simply to maintain normalcy in the relationship. The goal for any relationship, rather, is to create an environment where each person feels free, (like the hit, 2003-release Jessica Simpson song lyrics) "I can let my hair down." To those of you who haven't experienced the joys of s

Black and white thinking, also known as "either/or" thinking, serves us well when we are first establishing an understanding of the world and the way things work. When we are toddlers, for example, categorizing things, such as shapes and colors, allows us to establish an organized process by which we are able to learn more quickly and efficiently about an individual subject and, thus, its related co-subjects. The better we are able to master this skill and carry it through to

For those of you who have ever been in a relationship where you believed yourself or your partner to be "co-dependent," it is far more likely that your relationship problems were/are due to something else. "Dependent Personality Disorder," as it is labeled in the DSM-V is extremely rare, occurring in only 0.49% of the population. So, chances are neither you or your partner would likely meet the criteria for the diagnosis, but that's not to say you and/or your partner didn't b