Related to trust and honesty is the concept of loyalty. When applied to relationships, being loyal generally means to be faithful to someone – both physically and emotionally.

When in a relationship, you may decide to express your liking for the other person in physical ways – holding hands, hugging, kissing… you get the picture. In general, in our culture, when we are in a relationship with one person, showing physical affection to someone else would be considered dishonest and unfaithful. Would you want your partner to hold hands with someone else? Hug someone else? Kiss someone else? Only you can answer those questions, but most people feel that physical affection towards another would be disloyal, dishonest and unfaithful.

An area that often gets murky however is flirting – because flirting with another person isn’t as clear cut as physically holding someone else’s hand. But if you are in a relationship with someone and you flirt with someone else, are you being loyal? If you have emotions for someone else, and act on them, are you being loyal? Always turn the situation around: If my partner were behaving this way towards someone, would I be upset?

How you answer that question can then guide what actions you are willing to take. Think about what might hurt your partner and ask if you are willing to lose someone over a flirtation with someone else.