Image from Unsplash

Romantically, I had a dark year last year. I went from finding out that my ‘so-called’ soulmate was someone who I would prefer to stay away from for now,to developing feelings for a man who I found out was married.

After the latter happened, I swore that I was done with love. I came home from a night of drinking and decided to ‘delete love’. The next day, I had an awful feeling in my body. That feeling was me denying the very essence of why I get up in the morning, love!

I love love. It’s my favourite thing in The World. I love the feeling that it gives us, I love that we become more connected with it and I love the fact that when you have fallen in love with someone, you can’t eat, sleep or do anything without person popping into your head.

So, I started to think... Maybe I love love too much? Or, maybe I love love enough? Regardless of how I feel about love, it is clear that some of the men that I have loved were clueless about the fundamentals of respect and being in a relationship. Which, hurt us. It takes two people in a relationship and I definitely played a part in the problems of our relationships; however, I do think that men (in general) need to know what a good woman wants from her man so that she doesn’t find herself repeating herself or bored of dealing with a man and his patterns.

So, here are 4 things that a good woman wants from her man:

1. Presence.

I often tell this story of how I had an ex whose eyes would always land on another woman when I was talking to him. I know that he is human and has eyes who has the free-will to look at whomever he wishes; however, when someone is speaking and you don’t listen to them and engage them, you are basically telling them that you wish they were not there. The energy of being heard, understood and looked at are very different to the energy of having a conversation with someone who is not there. The same goes for being in someone’s life. No matter how much money you make or the future that you’ve planned with someone. If she doesn’t know that you like/love her, there is no point in planning a future with this person because she might not be around once all your plans have been carefully constructed. A good woman would prefer your presence over money and future plans anyway because the road you are headed down starts today.

2. Respect.

Have you ever heard about the story of the lady who was taken out on a date by a man and on the date, the man leered at other women, was on his phone the entire time, flirted with the waitress, told her that he was going on a date with someone else tomorrow, made her pay for dinner and then he professed his love to her and asked to see her again soon? I did a total exaggeration of this story; however, each of these incidents has happened to me on separate occasions. And, I always wanted to give them the benefit of the doubt. So, I would give them another chance. Only to find out that their ‘professed love’ was not enough.

You can send flowers, post on IG, write songs or have messages delivered to a woman; however, if your actions do not back this up with genuine respect, your actions are wasted. A good woman asks to be respected and if she isn’t respected, she would rather be alone than be disrespected because she understands that companionship is based on genuine respect and understanding.

3. Vulnerability.

At this moment in my life, I am so turned off by how a lot of men approach women. There is this general attitude that the woman should be kind, open, vulnerable and understanding but the man shouldn’t be. The man should be a man and not show his vulnerable side because ‘if he is a man, he has armor’. How do we expect relationships to last if one person goes in ready for battle? After one of my exes ghosted me for two weeks, he appeared again only to tell me that we hadn’t ‘professed our undying love for each other’ and that I needed to chill. This armor that society expects males to put on hurts their partners because when one person is vulnerable, they ought to be cared for; not abandoned or hurt.

A good woman wants a man who is able to be open and receptive because she knows that it is a quality needed in order for a healthy relationship to thrive.

4. Your honest word.

We can all make promises but not all of us can keep those promises. But behind every broken promise is someone hurt by the lack of that promise not being followed through with. Women don’t want The Moon, The Sky, The Heavens and the Milky Way, we just want honesty and kept promises. We understand that you are human and that you will mess up; but continuously messing up is another story. We understand that you might not always be able to; but never being able to is a red flag. I had an ex-boyfriend admit to me that he lied about receiving a text from his ex because he was afraid that I would break up with him. This made me more angry than if I had known that she was texting him because good women want to be on the same page as their men and, if anything comes in-between that, they feel blindsided and feel as though communication & trust is out the window. Trust your woman enough to know that she can handle the truth. You don’t have to lie to her to keep her and, if you do, maybe she isn’t the one that you are meant to be with. A relationship is built on honesty because the truth always comes out and when it does, get ready to defend your lie and/or watch her walk away from you.