So let’s discuss, is flirting cheating?

This week I’ve found myself thinking about a question that’s important to understand your own answer of if you’re dating and after chucking it in the direction of various people I know, I’ll now allow anyone else to answer it for themselves.

Is flirting with other people while you’re in a relationship considered as cheating?

I think the most important thing that needs to be considered here is this – what is the intent behind the flirt, because here’s my theory that I know won’t be received well but I’ll say it anyway. I don’t believe men can flirt without there being sexual intent behind it, whereas I believe women can.

For a man to initiate flirting with a woman, there will be some kind of sexual desire there. So really when a guy flirts, the idea of that flirting to be taken further wouldn’t ever be off the table.

However for women, sometimes we flirt purely because we want to feel desired or wanted by someone and we don’t even have to find that person attractive, but it’s more of an ego boost. We can flirt to get a drink, or to get something done for us. But …. it’s actually quite rare that we do this with a sexual intent.

But does that make it any less worse? That bit I’m not sure about.

So is flirting cheating? I think it depends on the intent behind it. Because if you’re only doing it because there’s some kind of sexual desire for the person you’re flirting with then I would have to say yes, because realistically and if we’re going to be honest, it probably means if you could sleep with them you would (but hopefully your moral compass would kick in first).

All that to one side though, I think even those of us in the most secure relationships probably have our stomachs turn at the thought of our other halves flirting with people who aren’t us. So wether you consider it cheating or not, it probably isn’t morally on track, but it’s definitely a conversation the two of you should have together to make your boundaries clear and to save any feelings getting hurt in the future.

One thing I can be sure of is that flirting with other people is probably quite a big trust violation and why would you risk doing something that could break your partners trust?

Social Media Vs Relationships

In the last 5 years (so really not that long at all) we’ve all become obsessed with the idea that if we don’t continuously show off everything our partner does for us or with us, then somehow it isn’t a legitimate relationship worth having.

And even MORE importantly, if they aren’t showing us off then they aint worth s**t and you’ve gotta replace them ASAP with someone who truly appreciates you …. blah blah blah blah.

But why is this? And who’s fault is it? Can we blame the dozens of reality TV stars who’s jobs it is to showcase every aspect of their lives and flat everything they’re doing? Or does the issue sit with us and how easily we think we should be adopting the same life style?

I speak to so many people who feel that unless they’re being ‘shown off‘ on their partners social media accounts then they don’t feel validated. But why is the validation from strangers that you’ve convinced yourself you need, proof that you have a relationship worth having? What is it that makes us feel that we need to live every little detail with our partner from behind a phone screen, because you know ….. pics or it didn’t happen!

The important question to ask yourself really, is this …. how do you feel when you’re around your partner in real life? Do you feel safe, do you feel special, do they make you feel appreciated? If the answer to all of these questions are yes, then why are you still chasing after the views and opinions of random people to make you feel like your relationship is doing well? If you’ve been introduced to all the most important people in your partners life, then honestly, the rest of the world really shouldn’t matter.

But here’s my theory, because we all feel so easily replaceable these days, we almost have the need to make sure we’re sharing the highlight reel of our relationship online to make sure everyone knows how ‘untouchable‘ it is and how ‘#couplegoals‘ you are, because if outsiders constantly get fed a stream of how amazing you guys are doing together, then maybe, just maybe …. there’s less chance of someone trying to step in and replace you.

Before everyone felt the need to over share their romantic escapades online, relationships seemed a lot less fragile because they were far less under the watchful eye of hundreds or thousands (depending on your following) of people. But now here we all are, wanting to share posts about every meal, every trip out, every present, because we want onlookers to think our romantic lives are prefect?

But what about when you step away from social media and away from your phone, do you guys actually share a connection that isn’t even photographable? Or are the two of you a well put together image mainly for the benefit of your socials?

So what happens to those of you who prefer to keep your relationships ‘private‘ and I use the word private loosely because actually all it is, is just not flooding all your accounts with every single move you guys make together. But nowadays, unless you advertise your movements on your social media accounts you’re called private.

Maybe privacy is the way forward, so we can live more in the moment and stop chasing the validation from people who really we shouldn’t give a s**t about.

So if you want to be private or not, the first step really is to stop putting so much pressure on your relationship by feeling the need to live every second of it through your social media accounts and focus more on how your partner makes you feel in real life.

Sounds like you’ve got a lot of baggage

Imagine that. Imagine someone who used to claim to love you telling you that no one after them will love you because you now sound like you’ve got ‘baggage’

Maybe that should come on the warning label when you date someone with a narcissist personality. Not only will the tear you down when you guys are together, but they will continue to do so once they aren’t even in your life.

Funny thing is, that so called ‘baggage’ they’re claiming makes you unlovable is only from all their unneeded extras they’ve left you with. You know when you get to the airport and realise you need to get rid of a few things you don’t actually want because your suitcase is too heavy, yeah well that’s the crap they left you with.

You were just fine, in fact your suitcase was way under the weight limit, but the stuff they left you with weighed 10x the amount of anything you actually owned yourself.

But it’s ok, because a heavier suitcase just means you need to develop a more keen sense of awareness for what muscles are working to carry this heavier weight.

If we’re speaking metaphorically, the muscle they’ll have left you needing to work on is actually your brain. But god damn will that muscle be toned af for the next person who wants to try and join you at this made up airport (kind of like a terming to jet off to a perfect healthy relationship).

Here’s the part when you can thank your narcissistic piece of s**t ex for leaving you with the weight of your relationship and where it went wrong because all they’ve done is provide you with the ability to sense someone with negative intentions a mile off.

Typically speaking, this kind of ex will normally be the second person you fall in love with. And this is based off of the findings of anthropologist Helen Fisher and according to her we only fall in love three times in our life but our second love, well that’s the hardest one.

It’s the one that teaches us lessons about who we are and how we often want or need to be loved.

Our second love will typically become a cycle, often one we keep repeating because we think that somehow the ending will be different than before. Yet, each time we try, it somehow ends worse than before and we focus so much on making it work that we will tend to lose sight of if we actually should be trying to make it work at all.

More often than not, our second love is unhealthy, unbalanced or narcissistic. Most likely there will be high levels of drama. This is exactly what keeps us addicted to this storyline, because it’s the emotional roller coaster of extreme highs and lows and like a junkie trying to get a fix, we stick through the lows with the expectation of the high.

So it’s no surprise really that this love has just us with some ‘baggage’.

However …. what it has done is shown us exactly what we don’t want from a love that we will have forever. It’s also taught us lessons that we would never have learnt if it wasn’t for going through this experience.

So thank your second love, for leaving you with their baggage (and then kindly reminding you of it years later just to make sure you don’t move on from them) because without them, you wouldn’t know what a healthy long lasting relationship is and how to cherish the man/woman that makes you feel safe and respected.

What if fate said….

What if fate was screaming at you both that you shouldn’t be together by never letting you live life running on the same timeline?

Would you listen?

Or would you put your fingers in your ears and sing to yourself to dull out the sound of life maybe having a pre planned route for you?

I’m talking like the adjustment bureau kind of vibes. Like there are some people who come into your life either to steer you into your real purpose or away from it.

Would you listen to fate if it was trying to tell you the person who’s constantly been your maybe is actually a no. That actually ‘timing’ was never the issue between you both but actually you just shouldn’t be together.

I can almost hear what people will be saying ‘but I know I should be with him/her just not right now, we’re on different pages’ but that’s the thing about literature, the pages are never the same, but somehow they still move in chronological order.

If you two aren’t even making chronological sense then maybe it’s time to accept that somewhere life never intended for you guys to be together, you stumbled across each other by a totally romantic accident and that’s ok, because they’re part of your journey but they aren’t your destination.

And what about the other end of the scale?

Those of us who life and fate has continuously attempted to propel together but by some crazy miracle or inconvenience you’ve kept missing each other.

For years the two of you had life plans that should have naturally twisted together but something has kept drawing you away from each other, maybe those people just weren’t quite ready to be shown what their ‘forever’ looks like quite yet.

Maybe the two of you have been so busy forming yourselves into the person you want to be by gaining a tonne of life experience with the wrong people. You were busy getting your hearts broken to get remoulded and put into shape ready for the person fate has in mind for you.

Or maybe the two of you will never meet?

Either way, maybe fate and life has a pre planned idea of who we should be with, or maybe it doesn’t. And maybe we don’t actually have any control over how our life will end up.

Edward Lorenz suggests that ‘Small actions will eventually lead to vastly different outcomes’ so weather we’re pulling away from our forever person or pushing towards them, if you’re meant to me together eventually you will be, once you’ve done all the ‘life stuff’ you need to do first.