Whether it’s an on-again-off-again relationship, an unsatisfying yet reoccurring hook up, or a heartbreaker who wants another chance, every girl has someone in her life that she just can’t escape. She gets so involved in a pattern of hot and cold with this man-friend, that when she’s caught up in it, something feels wrong. And when she’s not, it feels even worse.

Trapped.

Many times, a girl will find herself believing the apparent hopelessness of this situation. She will start to believe that no one will ever love her like he does. She will take him back with open arms and torture herself with insecurities about the relationship and thoughts of its inevitable ending. And end it will because if he bails once, he’ll do it again.

This kind of relationship is like quicksand: dangerous, gritty, and suffocating.

It’s all but impossible for one person to exert the amount of force necessary to get out of quicksand. The whole reason people die sinking into it is because quicksand is hard to spot, and although it may look like it can support your weight, it can’t. The same concept goes for that relationship that’s always pulling you down. As you're walking into it, you don't see that the relationship can’t support you. And by the time you want to get out, it seems impossible to gather the strength do it alone.

When it comes down to it, the only actions you can control are your own, and the only feelings you know are true are your own. If you're stuck in a quicksand relationship, don’t go to the person who led you into it to pull you out—he's only going to make you sink more deeply. Instead, say to yourself, "I don't believe the required force to get out of quicksand is too much for one person alone."

And then you straighten up your shoulders, pick up your feet, and pull yourself out.

Kayla Parks | Image: Source