I often receive questions from married people. In my other career, I typically deal with people whose dating relationships or marriages are ending, or are already over. 
Many times those people still deeply love each other, but the break down of the relationship was irreparable...or so they thought. 
I often think they are just fatigued and stubborn. Each one thinks his or her way is the only way, and when the other does not comply they throw up their hands.

Almost every week, I get no less than three phone calls, texts or emails about relationship issues or just relationships in general. Everyone has relationship issues, so it only makes sense that everyone has relationship questions. 
Nope, I don't fancy myself a relationship guru. I am not the person who will tell you how to snag a mate or make it down the aisle. However, I can help you with your relationship issues. 

I am a thinker, observer, and problem solver. 
I'm driven more by logic and reason...and still trying to tap into my own emotions. (That's just the truth.) 
Life has given me a unique window into a portal that many don't realize exists: the space where men and women finally understand each other. 
Growing up as a tomboy and having genuine, life-long friendships with the opposite sex, has afforded me the ability to synthesize information in a unique way.  Someone once told me that I am annoyingly fair. I really don't take sides. I try to see the issue,…

I checked my email this morning and received a request for advice on a very common topic. (I was an advice columnist for seven years, btw.) 

I agreed to give an answer if I could share the issue with you readers. I also agreed to make this as anonymous as possible, so I won't post the email in its entirety. 
Here's what happened. Young gent and lady, who are neighbors hit it off. They spend a lot of time together and start a heavily romantic relationship without making a commitment.


Numerous sleepovers and hangout sessions later, and one day ish gets awkward.

They are out together and run into his friend. So upon introduction, he identifies her as his neighbor (something other than girlfriend, boo, bae, significant other, woman of my dreams). She feels some kind of way and goes cold on him. He apologizes and tried to convince her that he meant nothing harmful by it, but she's hurt. 😩
Now he's making all kinds of overtures to show that he cares, lady erases him from h…

#RomanceAwarenessMonth Day 1 #Romance involves catering to all five senses, employing #creativity, and celebrating the unique nature of your #relationship. #blog #relationshipblogger #datingtips #love A photo posted by YBBGBlog (@ybbg_blog) on Aug 1, 2016 at 8:18am PDT

So August is romance awareness month and I've been paying homage to the month over on Instagram.

Granted, I had never heard of this, but when it came to my attention I thought it was pretty cool. I'm all for positive things. I get tired of seeing all of the negativity about relationships, and want to feed the good vibes. 
(Note that these personal stories are going to be from the past. LOL) 
I think romance is an integral part of a relationship. Studies have shown that romance is an essential element needed for building emotional attachment in a relationship. There are a number of reasons why this is true and they deal with the five senses, hormones, and chemical balance of the brain. (Check out the blog's I…

Ahhh social media. The blessing. The curse. Social media is great for connecting with old friends and finding new ones. Social media gives you the virtual access of having a passport (You should still get a passport.) to people with whom you may have never had the opportunity to connect. 
When I started this series of blogs, social media continuously popped up in discussions I had with different people. 

Some of us in our thirties entered the dating scene as teens before cell phones were in every hand, prior to the existence of text messaging, tweeting, facebooking, instagramming, snapchatting and a multitude of other forms of communication.
Face-time meant actually meeting up with someone IRL ("in real life") and communicating face to face. 
Check out this (edited) post from a guy on a date with a lady engaged more with her phone than with him. 

The heavy dependence on social media as a primary source of communication is quite difficult to deal with. It can be very annoying…