Wondering how to conquer your fear of commitment?
Fear of commitment is something that is very common in today’s dating pool, and it can arise from a range of factors, including social anxiety, a previous bad relationship or even coming from a divorced home. This fear can be strong, but it definitely is something that you can get over. Follow these tips to get on the path to curing your commitment anxieties and having a more positive love life. So, without further ado, here's how to conquer your fear of commitment.
1. Unpack Your Personal Story
Everybody’s fear of commitment has to stem from a personal experience, and the sooner you work your way back and discover exactly what it is that keeps you from fully committing to another person, the sooner you can start to make positive changes to address the problem. Pinpointing a place or time in your life that changed your opinion of long term relationships is vital, because then you can examine that period as something separate to the rest of your life. Soon you will come to see that the relationship you are having now is vastly different from the relationship or experience you had back then. Looking inward is just the first step in how to conquer your fear of commitment.
2. Is It You or Them?
Have you considered that it might not be a problem that you personally have at all? Sit back and take a few minutes to consider the person that you are with. Could you perhaps be anxious about spending the rest of your life with him in particular, rather than having a problem with commitment as a concept? You would be surprised by how long people stay in a bad relationship that they think is working just fine. Your hang ups about committing might not have anything to do with a fear of taking the next step. It may just be your brain telling you that you are considering taking it with the wrong partner.
3. Track Your Thoughts
Track your thoughts and let your mind go way into the future to plan out different scenarios that you might be apprehensive about right now. Can you see yourself getting married to this person? Buying a house together? Starting a family? Growing old together? Just visualising these big scenarios can make the future seem much less scary and unpredictable. If you don’t feel uncomfortable or panicked by these visualisations, then it’s a great start towards being able to put them in to practise in your real life.
Recognizing that you have a fear of commitment is the first step – and it’s a big one. Once you know that it’s an issue, you can take steps to overcome it.