ARE YOU READY TO COMMIT?

‘It’s wise to feel content and fulfilled in your own identity before you try to combine your life with another’s,’ says Andrew G Marshall, marital therapist and author of Are You Right For Me? Seven Steps to Getting Clarity and Commitment in Your Relationship, ‘otherwise resentment may follow later. You need to know yourself well enough and have the emotional maturity to be able to articulate what you want from the partnership and negotiate your way through the differences that are bound to arise. The important thing is to keep communicating, even if you’re not on the same page of your relationship at the same time; to say, as Melissa did, “I’m not ready to settle down yet, but I love you and want to be with you. Is that OK with you?”’