<human>: Could you distill the essence of the text into 1-3 sentences?

My girlfriend and I been dating for a year and I think we may have left the honeymoon phase. We've been having more fights and have gotten very emotional over the past couple of weeks. It was at the point where I considering breaking up with her, but she was very much against ending it. I don't really want to break up, I love her, and when things are going good, it's great.

Our plan as of right now, is to take some time apart and have a talk next week. Each of us is supposed to present 2 - 3 thing we fell are holding us back and have a few suggestions on how to improve our issues. What do you think reddit, is this a good way to begin approaching things?

One of the main issues in our relationship is my girlfriend's low self esteem. If we do ever get in a fight I am almost always the one instigating and she will barely defend herself. It's always, "I'm sorry I'll try to do better." Or when I previously mentioned the idea of us breaking up, one of her concerns was that no one else would ever love her. A second problem is communication. She is not a very good listener and I am not very good at conveying my thoughts. You can imagine how this would play out. What can we do to work out these problems?
<bot>: Been together one year and have started fighting more. How can we start repairing and growing in our relathionship?