QUICK RELATIONSHIP FIXES: Radical Transparency
It’s a little more than just plain, old honesty
In the early stages, some relationships can suddenly appear to stagnate and one partner or both can feel like they keep hitting a brick wall when it comes to achieving full intimacy.
It feels like it’s not going anywhere even though they seem to give it their best and they otherwise, seem good for each other. This can happen because at that stage partners still have their guards up or due to past experiences, they simply don’t know each other well enough to fully trust.
What is radical transparency?
One move that will definitely help is for couples to begin cultivating radical transparency in their relationships. This means being open with your partner about your feelings, thoughts, experiences, motivations, aspirations, fears, and experiences. It also means being forthcoming about your mistakes, and faults and admitting when you’re clueless.
“It also means that the individuals involved freely and willingly share the issues they have in the romantic relationship and with each other. They freely acknowledge their obstacles, issues, and insecurities if there is transparency in a relationship.” -Sylvia Smith
Radical transparency vs. honesty
Being honest simply means, telling the truth to your partner about anything you’re sharing. In actual fact, honesty is just a component of transparency because transparency isn’t just about willingness to truthfully share, it’s also about how much you share and how you frame whatever it is you choose to share. You’re not just sharing for sharing’s sake.
How can transparency help?
By cultivating it in the early stages partners enable a trusting and collaborative relationship to develop. Their being open and honest with each other naturally leads to a deeper and more fulfilling bond. All in all, it puts the relationship on a much firmer footing.
A few tips
- Start small by sharing maybe just one thing your partner doesn’t already know.
- Start simple- emotions, thoughts, perspectives, etc.
- Be completely honest about whatever it is you do share.
- You need to try your absolute best not to judge and so, treat whatever your partner shares simply as new information.
- Radical transparency doesn’t mean a total lack of discretion, therefore, establishing and maintaining healthy boundaries is still highly recommended.
In a nutshell, radical transparency will:
- in other words, couples need to be willing to be vulnerable because they will take the risk of revealing their weaknesses to each other in the hopes of connecting on a deeper level and growing as a couple;
- when cultivated from an early stage, help bring down guards while still maintaining healthy boundaries;
- facilitate a deep connection where partners experience a comforting sense of trust and security with each other;
- be a powerful tool for building strong, healthy romantic relationships because it creates a level of trust and understanding that is difficult to achieve any other way, and
- as one of the biggest benefits, allow couples to communicate honestly and openly about their feelings and thoughts.
