Active listening and being a good communicator. After a lot of negative experiences, if I ever start noticing any of the “Four Horsemen” in an early stage of dating and they don’t see the problem, I’ve learned it’s best to just end things before you’re stuck in either an abusive relationship or one where you’re always viciously fighting. After the honeymoon phase ends, sometimes someone gets tired and respond poorly to things, which isn’t perfect but no relationship is perfect, but I think being consistently berated or stonewalled in a long-term relationship is a relationsip-ending red flag too.

My partner and I, after three years at least, communicate really effectively, I feel, where we start from a point of working together to solve a problem, and it’s such a breath of fresh air.