 Before we start, we'd like to give you a huge thanks for all of the love and support that you've given us. Psych2Go's mission is to make psychology more accessible to everyone, and you help us do that. Now, let's continue. Mistakes are an opportunity to learn and grow, but sometimes the mistakes you make in a relationship can lead to unnecessary issues between you and your partner, or even cause a painful breakup. Whether you're in a relationship now or plan to be in one in the future, understanding the most common relationship mistakes can help you become a better partner and have happier and healthier relationships. By the end of this video, you'll know the most common mistakes that nearly everyone makes and how to avoid making them yourself. Let's jump into it. The Love Language Mismatch What's your love language? According to Irina Fierstein, a licensed clinical social worker and couples' therapist, if you don't know the answer to this question, you could be making one of the most common relationship mistakes. Dr. Fierstein points out that understanding your partner's love language and your own is important for a successful relationship. A love language describes how someone gives and receives love. There are five different love languages, physical touch, quality time, words of affirmation, gift giving or receiving, and acts of service. Not understanding your partner's love language is a mistake that almost all of us make at some point and it can lead to problems in your relationship. For example, imagine that your love language is quality time and your partner is gift giving or receiving. They constantly surprise you with flowers and spoil you with thoughtful presents that you don't care about gifts. You're just thinking, I never spend quality time with me. Why don't they love me? In this case, the problem might not be that your partner doesn't love you. Rather, they just don't know how to best show their love for you because they don't know your love language and you don't know theirs. This can cause a lot of miscommunication and make you and your partner feel unappreciated or unloved. So how can you avoid making this mistake? Learn what your partner's love language is and know your own. Talk about it openly with your partner. Then you'll understand how to express your love for them in a way that resonates with them and vice versa. Curious about what your love language is? Try taking the love languages quiz. It was developed by Dr. Gary Chapman, a marriage and family counselor, an author who developed the concept of the five love languages. After you've finished watching this video, take the quiz linked in the description and share your results in the comments below. Ignorance is bliss. Cy is frustrated with his girlfriend, Mary, because she constantly leaves her dirty laundry and a messy pile in the room instead of putting it in the hamper. Every day he cleans it up for her but gets more and more irritated every time he sees it. But he never says anything to her about it because things are going well in their relationship and he doesn't want to start an argument. Finally, one day Cy sees the messy pile of clothes yet again and loses his temper. You're so messy. I hate how you always leave your clothes around. How hard is it to put them in the hamper? Mary is surprised and hurt. She didn't even know this was bothering Cy. Why didn't you tell me sooner? She asked. Can you relate to the situation? When we hold our emotions in for long enough, it's only a matter of time before they come to the surface. A Cy's predicament is just one example of how ignoring a problem in a relationship can lead to resentment, which can make the relationship become worse over time. Amy Morin, psychotherapist and licensed clinical social worker, says that ignoring problems is one of the most common mistakes that can hurt a relationship. She recommends having open and honest conversations with your partner about your problems in your relationship and how you feel about them. According to Morin, not only can this help you avoid making the common mistakes of ignoring problems, but it will also help you and your partner establish a deeper sense of trust with one another and strengthen your bond. Instead of sweeping your relationship problems under the rug and hoping they'll go away with time, communicating clearly and compassionately with your partner is the better approach. As the famous philosopher John Dewey said, a problem while stated is a problem half solved. It was good, until it wasn't. When you're in a brand new relationship, everything feels exciting and filled with passion, but over time that honeymoon phase can start to wear off. Morin pointed out that many people make the mistake of getting so caught up in the monotonous tasks of everyday life that they end up spending less time with their partner. Instead of going on dates or trying something new and exciting, they do things that are, well, kind of boring. Since this is an easy habit to slip into when you get comfortable with your partner, almost everyone makes this mistake. The good news is there are proven techniques to keep the spark alive. A 2015 study published in the American Journal of Family Therapy identified various ways to keep romantic relationships exciting and created a new model for it. According to the model doing exciting activities is the key to maintaining the passion in your relationship. This means being adventurous to try new things and have novel experiences together. They also cited playful and silly activities like having inside jokes and laughing together. Other categories that were mentioned included having spontaneous, passionate, sexual and romantic activities. Try implementing these activities in your relationship to prevent things from getting stale. We hope you resonated with this video and learned how to avoid making the mistakes that most people make in relationships. Have you made any of these relationship mistakes before? What are some mistakes you or a partner of yours have made in the past that weren't mentioned here? Share in the comments below. Thanks for watching Psych2Goers. See you in the next one.