Everyone enters a relationship with a past. We cannot have gotten this far through life without having encountered experiences which in turn provided our life’s lessons. This baggage may include the styles of communication we witnessed as we grew up, the way our family of origin designated gender roles, the structure of previous relationships, the conflicts we were involved in and how they were resolved, and preconceived notions of how things are supposed to work, to name a few. All of our history impacts our future. Understanding why we react the way we do in any given situation is essential to forming healthy relationships.