The right partnership feels healthy. It feels good, without a lot of conflict, and doesn’t feel like you’re forcing it.

But how do you know that your relationship feels truly right for you? Trust your gut.

Why Your Gut Knows

Intuition is a sudden, strong judgment you can’t necessarily explain right away. Yet you pick up on facial cues, the tone of someone’s voice, or a visual inconsistency. Plenty of times, the promise of a relationship holds up and keeps people going. But there are often small yet significant warning signs. Your body and mind help warn you about potentially violent situations and people so you can avoid harm.

It doesn’t always present itself right away. Maybe someone is rude to a stranger, but you brush it off. Maybe they lost their temper, blamed you for a problem of theirs, or tried to cajole into hanging out instead of letting you have the night with your friends as planned. Maybe there is a growing feeling for a while that something is off. These warning signs, however, can grow and fester into something much worse.

Is Your Gut Right About Your Relationship?

Of course, only focusing on the negative in a relationship will lead you to believe all of their behavior feels wrong. That’s why it’s imperative to pay close attention to your partner and how they communicate with you so you can get in touch with your gut.

Trusting your instincts helps keep you safe. If you’re connecting with your partner on an emotional level, that means you should also be connecting to them by communicating openly with them about how you two feel. However, if you feel that you two are not connecting or not communicating well, it might be time to move on.

On the other hand, don’t believe what you want to believe, but listen to what your partner says and how they say it. See if you can track when you don’t feel comfortable with their behavior. If the way they act seems contrary to what they say. For example, they say they love you but then belittle you in front of your friends and that makes you feel bad, your gut may be trying to tell you that it’s time to end it. And if there are moments where you feel scared, anxious, nervous, fearful or worried about what you do in the relationship and how your partner could react, that’s another way of your gut telling you to get out.

Feel like chatting with someone? Call 866-331-9474 or text “loveis” to 22522 to speak with a trained peer advocate about your relationship.