Love Is Intense
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Our first love teaches us that love can be such a powerful emotion. We can quickly become engulfed in the emotion of love and it makes us feel differently than we ever have before. It can be a complete rollercoaster of emotions and it definitely opens our eyes to what can be.
How To Be Vulnerable
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The first love we have in our lives is pretty much an initiation in to how to be truly vulnerable. We have to quickly learn that to be in a relationship we have to be able to open up and reveal our innermost feelings. Vulnerability isn't a weakness but something that allows us to connect with a partner.
Love Can Be Heartbreaking
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One of the most bittersweet lessons we tend to learn from our first love is that the heartbreak it brings can be terrible. As we navigate the pain of a break-up we can quickly discover that love isn't always sunshine and happiness, sometimes things don't work out and we're left in the gutter for a while.
Feeling Jealous
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Our first loves can often introduces us to the green feeling of envy and jealousy, it isn't a nice feeling to have to go through but it's completely natural. Learning to trust others can open up feelings of jealousy which are usually a mirror to our fears and challenges we need to overcome.
How To Trust Someone
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Trust is absolutely the cornerstone of any healthy relationship and our first love can be some of our first lessons in relation to trusting others. Learning to trust is important as we have to be able to believe our partner's words and actions; it isn't a one off either, it's a continuous process.
Effective Communication
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Another cornerstone of a healthy relationship is being able to openly and honestly communicate with people. In order to get through a relationship healthily you need to be able to express your feelings, listen actively and communicate any desires or issues you might have.
How To Compromise
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The art of compromising doesn't come easily to everyone, but it's an important aspect in any relationship. Balancing our own needs and desires with those of our partners can take some time and patience to get right, but once you understand each other everything gets a little easier.
Individuality
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Our first love highlights the importance of maintaining our own individuality. Whilst love will always connect us with our partners, we have to be careful to not let it consume our own identities. We all learn to find a healthy balance between being part of a couple and then being an individual.
Personal Growth
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For some of us, it can take a while to find the person that is right for us, the one doesn't always appear when we really want them too. However, the first love we find ourselves in can really strengthen our own sense of personal growth and they can often help us pave the way.
Understanding The Important People
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Beyond just being part of a romantic relationship, the first person you fall for can really reveal to you how important and significant the roles other people in our lives can play. Our friends and family play vital roles and we can be taught that people who are there for us should be appreciated.
Balancing Our Time
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Although this isn't always something you might expect to happen, our first love definitely helps us become skilled managers of our time. Knowing you have a relationship to maintain alongside your work usually helps you demonstrate the ability to balance the important parts of your life.
Mutual Respect
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Although first loves are rarely our final ones, they're usually a crash course in the significance of mutual respect. We can learn that treating our partner with plenty of consideration in the same way we'd want them to do for us is essential for creating the healthy foundations of a relationship.
How To Support Someone
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From a young age we are taught to be caring and considerate to other people around us and our first relationship continues this. We discover the importance of being there for our partner through the good times and the bad and vice versa. No one wants to be in an unsupportive relationship!
The Power Of Forgiveness
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Forgiveness isn't always something we can do easily or naturally, but in our first relationships we'll make loads of mistakes. Understanding the power of forgiveness will always allow us to move forward and eventually in life and love fortify our romantic and platonic relationships.
Pain Is Natural
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I've already mentioned that our first love can teach us about heartbreak, but it isn't just that. We're also quickly introduced to the fact that pain and suffering are a natural pat of life. Fortunately though, although pain might feel like it'll stick around forever it does go away eventually.
Self-Reliance
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Our first love can also help remind us of the importance of our own mind and being in the process of looking after ourselves. Whilst we might treasure our relationship, we also have to remain confident in our own skin and maintain everything we believe is important for ourselves.
How To Appreciate The Little Things
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One of the most glorious aspects of a first love is that we are taught to appreciate the smaller, everyday moments in life. We might be able to treasure the quieter moments and the simple gestures that make a relationship what it is. We all have those little things that only make sense to the two of you.
Uncovered Insecurities
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None of us like to admit it, but we all have our own unfortunate insecurities and it can take a lot of pain for us to work out what they are. Through the lens of a relationship we are able to confront and work out these fears and work as a duo to find some awareness together.
Accepting Other People's Flaws
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Like I said, you work together in order to be able to understand and work out your flaws and insecurities. Part of this process in a relationship is being able to understand the importance that you're able to accept and embrace the imperfections of the other person in the relationship.
Learning Your Own Self-Worth
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Whilst it's nice to be in a relationship, you should always remember the importance of your own self-worth. Our partners can usually emphasise this to us as they make us aware of our own. We have to learn that our own self-worth and value isn't dependent on others.
Empathy
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Our first love can often introduce us to the power of empathy in a relationship and life in general. We have to learn to put ourselves in the shoes of our partner and understand their perspective against our own. It can be difficult but once you have it down things get much better.
How To Bounce Back
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Part of the pain from a break-up can be used to show ourselves how resilient we can all truly be. After the heartbreak we all feel, as well as the disappointment, we all have to discover the inner strength we have. You go through a journey of being able to love yourself again.
Our Deepest Emotions
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Everyone is different when it comes to their emotional ability, some of us are born emotional whilst others have to learn. Love reveals our own capacity to love and be affectionate whilst also allowing us to understand the full extent of our ability to be emotional with other people.
Understanding The Role of Family
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If you didn't already know how important your family was before your first love you definitely will after. They can help you navigate any issues and they can also be your backbone when things begin to go wrong. They might even be able to help your partner and their parents you!
How People Can Change
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I've already mentioned how we can all grow personally within our first relationships, but we can also learn and witness other people's changes too. First-hand we can see how people evolve and adapt in a relationship, this could be either a positive or negative thing depending on the changes.
What You Want In Future Relationships
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Our first love is an extremely powerful teacher when it comes to defining what we want in our future relationships. They can pretty much shape our expectations and the qualities we'll want in future partners. Our first love is often a stepping stone to getting to where we want to be.
The Pursuit Of Happiness
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One of the most important things that our first loves can teach us is that happiness and our hunt for happiness is one of the most important aspects of our lives. It can help instil the belief that love and what comes with love really are worth searching and going through heartbreak for.
Sometimes Things Just Don't Work Out
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Our first love can often lead to the realization that, despite all of our best efforts, some relationships just aren't meant to be. Even if the initial connection appears to be as strong as possible we can be taught how some relationships don't work out and endings can be the right thing.
How Impactful Relationship Emotions Can Be
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One of the biggest things that come from your first love is your realization as to how impactful a relationship can be to your life. We all go through some highs and lows which can reveal our own emotional stability. These lessons really shape us for the rest of our lives.
You Have Bad Taste
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First loves can often be the biggest mistakes of your life and they can often show that you haven't yet got a grip of what it is you're looking for in a relationship. It's rare the first one will be the best one and that can often make us feel as though we have the worst taste possible.