Being in love is a wonderful feeling. Once we fall in love with a man we start imagining what our future with him will be like. It’s difficult not to envision how your lives will be years from now and what it might feel like to be his wife. That imagined fairytale can all come crashing down around you, when he says “I need time.” Those words can make a woman feel as though the world has been pulled out from under her. Understanding exactly what a man means when he says this to you is crucial in keeping the relationship together. If you’re not prepared to lose the man you adore, you need some much needed insight into what’s going on in his heart and in his head.
When he says “I need time,” chances are very good that you’ve rushed to your closest friends to help them decipher what he meant. The problem with this approach is that most women have a skewed view of the hidden meaning behind what men say. Your friends are likely to tell you that it means that he feels overwhelmed by the depth of his love for you. They may suggest that he needs some time to fully grasp how much he cares for you. When your man says he needs space or time it has nothing to do with him being too much in love with you. It has everything to do with him needing to be away from you. If your guy has said this to you, it’s his way of slowly and compassionately breaking up with you.
What you do when he says he wants some time or he needs some distance is crucial to the future of the relationship. The best possible move you can make at this point is to be mature about the situation and tell him that you agree with him. Granted this isn’t going to be what you feel at all, but it’s an approach that works for a couple of reasons.
First, he’s not expecting you to want a break from him. That’s why he’s being so gentle with you in how he’s disengaging from the relationship. He expects you to put up a fight and if you don’t, that takes the power away from him. Also, if you agree that time is necessary he’ll start to question your feelings for him. If a man feels a woman is just out of his reach, she’s more appealing to him. Men often think they need time if the relationship has become a bit boring or stale. Pulling back from him, even if he is pulling back from you, is often the best way to regain his interest again.