Minimize. Healthy relationships happen when both experiences matter, not one more than another, not one less than another, both, with equal shares of mattering. Minimizing, is a communication pattern where someone's experience matters less. Someone's experience is shrink-wrapped. It's made trivial and they themselves feel insignificant. Overtime, minimizing leads to doubt and diluted self-trust. Journal Prompt: I felt that my experience was minimized when...

Fear. Fear opens the door to power and control. If there is panic that something will be lost, security, connection, or belonging, people respond. Journal Prompt: In relationships I fear... For the sake of this series, we will not talk about abuse that has escalated to physical and sexual violence, obvious offenses that need to be taken seriously, here is a resource for more help. In this series rather, we'll process more subtle patterns that can as well be damaging to relationships.