I think it’s likely that each of us intends to keep our word to our partner when we enter into a relationship. However, promises and agreements are often broken between partners.

How does this happen? It happens in a few ways, but I think the main way it happens is by going against our word to ourselves. Recently, in my relationship coaching practice, I worked with a client who was breaking off an engagement. She realized that when she had entered into the engagement with him that she had actually broken her word to herself. They had fought about everything: career, life’s path, goals, dreams, food, household, and activities to name a few. The word to herself that she had broken was the commitment to be with someone who loved her and supported her for who she was and her life’s path. She had felt that at every turn her partner had gone against who she was and what she was up to in the world. This is not to say that he was a bad person. He wanted different things than she did and as a result they fought. She realized that she had to be responsible about having broken her word to herself and about reclaiming that word.

Are you being true to your word?