WHAT’S THE #1 CAUSE OF CONFLICT IN RELATIONSHIPS?

Have you ever been in a relationship with a controlling person?

It can seem stifling, because a controlling person is always trying to tell you what to do or how to feel.

Isn’t that a lot of makeup?

I don’t want you going out for drinks after work, you should be coming straight home.

Why did you spend that much money on clothes?

You should lose some weight and start working out, then you’ll feel better.

You need a hobby that’s not going to be so time-consuming.

When someone says these types of things to you, it’s easy to recognize their controlling behavior.

You may think “I’m not like that.” You’re not a controlling person. You don’t tell your partner what to do.

Instead, you are nice—sometimes too nice. You do so much for your partner. Perhaps you clean or fix things around the house, plan or cook most of the meals, remind your partner of important appointments, and you encourage him or her to better themselves through classes or therapy.

But you don’t demand it of them.

You’re always there when your partner wants to talk or vent. You have a sense of when they need you, and you’re more than happy to be there for them. In fact, you sometimes put off doing what you want to do in order to support your partner.

You’re not overbearing or critical. You choose your words carefully because you just don’t like rocking the boat. You want to pick your battles.

When you do get upset, you’d rather just stay quiet and let your partner come to you to smooth things over. You’re not going to tell them what to do or how to feel about you. You want them to figure that out for themselves.

You’d never want your partner to think you’re a controlling person, because you’re not.

However, if you relate to any of the above, you are controlling

In this moment you may be thinking “What? That doesn’t make any sense. I never tell your partner what to do.”

It’s understandable that you don’t “get” how you’ve been controlling, but let me explain…

The Two Forms Of Control (And Why One Of Them Doesn’t Seem Like It)

I’ve found that there are two major areas in which we try to control others.

Sometimes we try to control what people do, and other times we may try to control how they feel (or respond) to us.

While you might not be the former, you may be the latter.

Let’s take the example of Tom and Jane. Tom tends to focus on what Jane does—how she spends her time and who she spends it with, how much money she spends, how well she keeps the house, and how she looks.

When Jane doesn’t behave in the way Tom thinks she “should,” he becomes angry, judgmental, and withdrawn. In Tom’s mind, he will experience being loved and safe when Jane behaves the way he wants her to behave, and justifies his attempts to control her when she is out of line. Love for Tom means someone doing what he wants, and he wants control over this. This is the overt form of control. This is about trying to tell someone what to do or not to do, or how to feel.

Jane, on the other hand, tends to focus on Tom’s reactions to her. Jane wants control over Tom’s reactions by being warm, accepting, and understanding. When Tom is judgmental and withdrawn, Jane experiences a lack of safety and tries to control Tom with her niceness and care-taking.

Jane gives herself up and tries to do what Tom wants in order to control his feelings about her and his reactions toward her. Eventually, when Tom does not give her the acceptance she desires, she gets angry, but niceness and care-taking are her first choices. Love for Jane means someone being accepting of her and she wants control over this.

It’s easy to see Tom’s controlling behavior; His anger, judgments, and withdrawal are quite obvious.

It’s harder to see that Jane is actually just as controlling as Tom—not about what he does, but about how he feels and reacts. This is a covert form of control.

Even if you aren’t being overtly controlling, there may be other, more subtle ways you are trying to control your partner. For example, you are likely attempting to control if you are:

• Pouting, sulking

• Being dramatic

• Being sneaky/deceptive

• Lying or withholding the truth

• Therapizing, analyzing

• Dismissing

• Moralizing

• Condescending or acting like a know-itall

• Lecturing, giving advice

• Giving disapproving sighs or looks

• Debating

• Explaining, convincing, selling

• Becoming self-righteous

• Complaining

• Using sarcasm

The Underlying and Understandable Reason We Learned To Control Others

There’s no shame in the fact that all of us have controlling behaviors toward others, covert or otherwise.

We learned it when we were children, when we were much too little for the big feelings that come from experiences of guilt, shame, anger, loss, and rejection. No matter how great your parents were, you would have experienced painful situations when you were young. Most of us did.

These experiences overwhelmed us, and we tried whatever we could to “feel” better.

Some of us rebelled, thinking that if we caused a fuss we would get more attention from our parents.

Some of us conformed, making as little fuss as possible in the hopes that this would buy us the love and comfort we needed.

Either way, we were trying to control other people in order to experience love and avoid pain. We either learned that we can tell others what to do (overt control) in order to accomplish this, or we learned that we could affect how others reacted to us (covert control) by people-pleasing and abandoning our own needs.

That’s why, as an adult, if you put your needs last, or always defer to others, or act extra “nice,” what you’re doing is attempting to control how others feel about you. You hope that your partner sees how agreeable you are and will want to stay with you.

Anything that has an agenda attached, is a form of control.

And it can have a tremendous negative effect on your relationship.

Want some guidance with learning how to overcome the need to control and enjoy more harmony in your relationships? Take the next step towards Soul Expansion with the gift of a Complimentary Session by visiting SoulExpansion.com or call (619) 832-2750.

How Both Forms Of Control Can Cause Tension, Strife, And Conflict Inside A Relationship

Our controlling behavior eventually results in creating whatever it is we are trying to prevent. We control to get love and avoid pain, yet by controlling rather than loving ourselves and others, we create the very pain we are trying to avoid.

We people-please and abandon our own needs to get love and respect, but it backfires when we experience being unappreciated and burned out, so we get angry and resentful of our partner.

We stonewall or bite our tongue in order to make our partner comfortable around us so they won’t reject us, but in doing so we suppress our own pain and over time, we grow apart from the person we wanted to love forever.

We yell, make demands, or blame our partner because we want to control how our partner behaves in order to be secure in the relationship, but we end up losing them anyway because they get tired of being abused by us.

That’s why I say that the most common unhealed issue that people are struggling with inside of a relationship, that they then carry from relationship to relationship, is control

Fortunately, once you learn to recognize how control is running your life and what you can do to heal it, you can tap into an unending source of love, safety, and acceptance, no matter whom you’re with, or whether or not you’re even in a relationship to begin with.

You are cordially invited to the rest of your life! Take the next step towards Soul Expansion with the gift of a Complimentary Session by visiting our website or call (619) 832-2750.

Learn how this innovative practice bypasses common bottlenecks faster than traditional therapy to celebrate your purpose with clarity, awareness, and personal strength!

Daniel Allen is a writer, speaker, and spiritual & emotional counselor on the subject of relationships (including the one we hold with ourselves), and an advocate for Love and raising consciousness. For more information or article suggestions please visit www.SoulExpansion.com, email info@SoulExpansion.com or call (619) 832-2750.