In this article, I’ll introduce you to the concept of “bids for connection” – one of the quickest ways to make an ex feel wanted and valued – and how to respond to an avoidant ex trying to get your attention.
There are so many different reasons and so many ways exes try to get your attention after a break-up. Some exes reach out and show you they want to stay in contact or open up the lines of communication after no contact. Others don’t directly reach out but instead ask friends and family about you, watch your Instagram stories or try to get your attention on some other social media platform. And some of the ways some exes try to get your attention can make you go “what was that about?” or “how do I even respond to that?”
An ex seeking attention vs. an ex sending bids for connection
If your ex has a fearful avoidant attachment style, you may find some of the ways your avoidant ex is trying to get your attention confusing and downright weird at times. One week things look really good – positive responses, longer conversations, jokes, smileys, and even a flirt or two. And the next; short sentences, one-word replies, or no response at all. Then just when you’re about to give up, you get two, three text messages in a row, and your ex obviously wants your attention. Do you respond positively, do you ignore them or do you confront them?
As I mentioned in the beginning of the article, there so many different reasons why exes try to get your attention. I discuss some of them in my article 20 Common Reasons Why Your Ex Is Contacting And Texting You. The difference between an ex who is just trying to get your attention and not looking for a deeper connection and one who wants to connect is that an ex who genuinely wants to connect will say and do things that tell you they’re not just looking for attention. They genuinely want to connect and their actions although confusing and seem like mixed messages are genuine bids for connection.
What are bids for connection?
According to Dr. Gottman who has spent years studied how couples interact and go about creating and strengthening connection, “a bid for connection” is any request for attention, affirmation, affection, or any other positive connection.
After a break-up, exes don’t usually come upfront and say “Hey, let’s connect” or ” I’d like to connect with you” – instead, they’ll say something or do something that tells us that they want to connect with us. These efforts to connect are what Dr. Gottman calls bids for connection.
Bids for connection can be verbal (a comment, question, a request for advice or help) or non-verbal (a touch, hug, smile, look, wink, gesture). Bids for connection can also be sent via emojis.
How do you respond to an ex trying to get your attention with a bid?
According to Dr. Gottman, there are three ways human beings generally respond to a bid for connection: turning toward, turning away and turning against.
An example of a bid for connection is an ex sending a photo of a sunset with a comment “Look at this beautiful sunset!” Your ex is not just commenting on the beautiful sunset, they’re asking for some kind of response or sign of interest with the hope that you’ll connect, however momentarily, over the sunset.
To some people and ex sending a sunset bid might seem superficial and low effort, but that’s because you are focusing on what you believe your ex should be saying or doing and missing the fact you’re your ex is trying to connect however brief the connection is.
You have a choice whether to respond by “turning toward” or “turning away” or turning against your ex.
1. Turning toward a bid for connection
Turning towards a bid for connection is responding to your ex’s bid for connection, engaging them, showing interest and making an effort to emotionally connect.
Turning towards your avoidant ex’s bids for connection not only makes your ex feel good about reaching out, it makes them interact more (longer conversation) which typically leads to more bids and more positive responses from both sides.
2. Turning away (ignore) from a bid for connection
Turning away from a bid for connection is ignoring, dismissing or avoiding the bid and not responding to it at all or in a satisfactory manner. This includes being unavailable, cutting off contact, pretending to be busy, distracting from or changing the subject of a conversation your ex clearly wants to have.
Turning away from your avoidant ex’s bids for connection repeatedly will make your ex feel anxious and afraid to send bids for connection. Most exes stop sending bids for connection.
3. Turning against (attack) a bid for connection
Turning against a bid for connection responding in anger or with aggression making the person sending the bid for connection feel attacked for wanting to for attention, affirmation, affection, or any connection. This includes starting arguments, defensiveness, criticism or sarcastic remarks.
Turning against your avoidant ex’s bids for connection creates hurt feelings or resentment and is often the cause of many relationship conflicts.
The more you turn towards your ex’s bids for connection, the stronger the connection
When you consistently ignore or avoid your ex’s bids for connection, they’ll gradually bid less and less, and may completely stop trying to make bids because they feel ignored, taken for granted or feel that their efforts are not appreciated. You may even find that turning away or against your ex’s bids for connection is why the break-up happened in the first place, but instead of learning from your mistakes, you go ahead and do the very same thing that got you where you are in. And some people are so emotionally clueless that even when their ex sends a bid for connection, they jump right into “This is what I want. Give it to me or I’ll ignore you (not give you any attention)”.
Dr, Gottman’s research has found that turning away or ignoring your ex’s bids for connection is more damaging to the relationship than turning against or responding in anger to their bid for connection. The message ignoring your ex’s bids for connection sends (intentional or not) is that you don’t care. When you repeatedly tell someone that you don’t care about them, they’ll gradually stop caring about you too.
Turning towards your ex’s bids for connection doesn’t mean you give in or go along with their every bid. It’s not even about how fast you respond to your ex’s text, or how much you tell them you love them, compliment them or tell them you support them. Turning towards your ex’s bids for connection is:
1) Recognizing or noticing the ways that they are trying to connect with you
This means taking the time to think through the emotional context of the bid for connection your ex is making, and giving them the attention, affirmation, affection, or any other positive connection they’re asking for at the given time.
Keep in mind that bids of connection change depending on what the person is feeling at the time and what level of connection they want. It can be one thing one text/conversation/day and another thing in another text/conversation/day.
This is why regular contact with your ex is very important. When you are not in contact, it’s very hard to figure out the emotional context of a given text, words or actions. You respond to a text thinking that’s the right response but instead get back silence or much worse… you find yourself in an argument you never intended to happen or defending yourself from something you never actually said or meant to say.
2) Not letting temporary negative feelings get in the way
From time to time, you may fail to recognize or notice a bid for connection, or even “turn away” or “turn against” it. The important thing is to make more effort to recognize or notice a bid the next time, and keep going.
Throughout the process of trying to attract back your ex, both of you will from time to time send bids for connection. Sometimes it’s not possible to quickly recognize your ex’s bid for connection and turn towards all of them, this will happen especially if you’re distracted with your own emotions and hurt feelings.
Do not beat yourself up and work up yourself emotionally and make things even worse with your habitual anxiety, worry and catastrophizing. The important thing is to make sure you don’t miss the next bid.
3) Keep moving towards your ex and not away from your ex
Turning towards your ex’s bids for connection doesn’t mean you give in or go along with their every bid for attention. One, if your ex has an anxious attachment style, chances are that you will never keep up with their need for attention. People with an anxious attachment style need more attention than even someone with a secure attachment style can provide.
Turning towards your avoidant ex’s bids for connection means that you try as much as possible to respond when your ex is trying to get your attention. Once you become skilled at recognizing, noticing and turning towards your ex’s bids for connection, things go a lot smother and faster, and your chances get better and better.
More examples of the kinds of emotional bids for connection an ex might send and how to recognize them can be found in my book: Dating Your Ex.
RELATED:
We had a session last week and I just wanted to say thank you for your wise counsel. So many things you said made sense and not having to worry about every text or no response is really helping with my anxiety. I’m not overreacting to the things he says and focusing on nonviolent communication to communicate how I feel and I can see something has changed. He’s not as angry as before and apologizes when I point out he’s being rude and disrespectful. I’m going to continue doing the things you advised and using every opportunity to emotionally connect. Thank you for all your help.
I’m not a huge fan of relationship advice because everything seems so black and white with no effort at trying to understand where the other person is coming from and no empathy. The advice on this site is exactly the opposite. I don’t know why this site is not on the first page of every google search, it is the best advice I have every read.
Yangki, I am thankful for this site. Everyone said to do no contact but in my case except for the break up of course, we don’t have bad memories that need fading away. We are each other’s best friend but we were not good in communicating our feelings very well which lead to the break up. I have learnt a lot from this site about how to communicate my feelings and also how to be receptive to my ex’s feelings. We are doing a lot better now and every day I am grateful that I did not do no contact. Btw, I also bought your ebook.
I feel the same way as Jung Li. I have struggled most of my life to emotionally connect and this has been a problem in many of my relationships But through reading your articles and book, I have began to make some progress. I think it is partly because of how you explain emotional connection. It makes so much more sense when you consider the emotions of the other person to be their expression of themselves and not a goal that one must achieve. I am just wondering if you will consider writing a book on emotional connection, I think many of us will be very interested in buying it.
I don’t know what you just said there about ‘a goal one must achieve”… but it sounds good, I’ll take it. Thank you.. 🙂
A book about “emotional connection” is not a bad idea at all.
I think I am finally getting a grip on this emotional connection approach. Just had the best conversation in more than 4 months. She even said ‘I like this you” and flirted a little. Next step is to build emotional momentum and I am up for the task. Wish me luck!
I wish you luck. 🙂
Now that you “got it”, it’s not that hard to create momentum.
Keep me in the loop.
This is a great article! I have been turning away from my ex’s bids for emotional connection because I was tired of being avoided and ignored by him for so long. I reacted exactly as you described; I ended up resisting his bid to connect last week as a result of the resentment I had from being ignored. It was a small bid but it was a bid nonetheless. Now I regret my refusal to respond.