Do you and your spouse make resolutions or set goals as a couple? Do you use January 1st as the starting line for improving your marriage? Or is it just another day on the calendar? The truth is, there’s no correct answer. Regardless of your feelings about making New Year’s resolutions, we’re sharing some essential tips to help guide your mindset about marriage this year. Read More
When the new year rolls around, you probably hear a lot about resolutions and goals – whether you’re setting them or not. The thing about both of them is they tend to be a bit abstract. While it’s great to be ambitious, resolutions and goals that are too broad, vague, or unrealistic can actually have the opposite effect that you intended. You end up feeling unmotivated – like you’ve failed before you’ve even begun. At that point, why even try at all?
Of course, the key to avoiding this letdown is to a) adjust your goals and resolutions to be reasonable and specific, and b) break them down into smaller, achievable chunks. These smaller chunks might come in the form of “micro” goals leading up to a bigger achievement. Or you might think of them in terms of developing new habits that support your resolution or goal. Read More
As the year wraps up, it’s always interesting to look back on the things that greatly influenced or played a role in your life over the past twelve months. Were you surprised by how many times you streamed that one song? Ready to cut down on screen time next year after seeing your device statistics quantified? Feeling accomplished over how many days you worked out?
When it came to our blog posts, you were all about ditching bad relationship habits while hanging onto the good, taking time to connect and reflect, and knowing you’re not alone when it comes to newlywed conflict. Here are the top five posts, all rounded up in one place. Let’s count them down. Read More
Ah, gratitude. It’s a common word these days, especially at this time of year – and for good reason. Gratitude is associated with some pretty powerful effects, such as lower stress, higher resilience, and greater happiness overall. Research has found that these benefits extend to marriage as well, fostering positive feelings and stronger connection between spouses. Who wouldn’t want that?
Of course, actually feeling gratitude within you is a very important part of the equation, as opposed to just going through the motions of expressing it. But let’s be real – sometimes you’re just not feeling it. Have you experienced this disconnect? If so, we’ve got some tips to help you cultivate a mindset of gratitude in your daily life and marriage. Read More
We could say a lot about the importance of good communication in relationships. And actually, on this blog, we have! You’ll find a lot about the basics of assertiveness and active listening and the importance of communication overall. You’ll also find insights on some of the things that prevent us from communicating well and can even cause conflict as a result. If it seems like a lot to remember while also trying to apply in real life, you’re right. So we’ve distilled our tips down to the most essential – and effective – secrets to rockstar communication. Read More
Shhh. Listen. No, really listen. Do you hear it? That’s the sound of some amazing things happening in your relationship.
As you probably know, being a good listener and continuing to work on that skill throughout your marriage is one of the basic tenets of great communication. But its positive effects have a way of rippling out into other areas of your relationship as well. Here are some of the things that happen when you truly listen to each other. Read More
We say it often: remember that you and your spouse are on the same team. The advice seems straightforward enough, but let’s be honest – it’s not always easy to follow through. You don’t always feel like teammates. If you’re not aligned on what you’re hoping to achieve, it can seem like you’re actually working against each other. Sometimes it might even feel like you have to take things on alone. Fortunately, there are ways you set yourselves up to be better teammates to each other. Here are three secrets to make this happen: Read More
“So you made that dinner reservation, right?”
“What? No, I didn’t. I assumed you didn’t want to go because you were complaining about how busy this week was.”
“What?! Why would you think that? You said last week you were going to check availability, so I assumed you got a reservation.”
“Ugh!”
For most couples, this is a very relatable situation. Miscommunications and misunderstandings bubble up due to making assumptions about each other, as demonstrated in the conversation above. We don’t do it intentionally. We’re usually not itching for an argument to pop up at the most inopportune times. In fact, most of the time we probably don’t even realize we’re making assumptions. That’s what makes them so tricky – but not if you know what to watch out for. Here are five common assumptions we make about our spouse that cause conflict in marriage. Read More
Picture this: a rare and precious jewel sparkles under a glass case atop a pedestal. Surrounding the treasure are some questionable characters who want to break into the case so they can have that jewel for themselves.
Now imagine your relationship is that jewel, and those characters are all of the external factors that, while not necessarily sinister in nature, have the potential to disrupt or damage the equilibrium of your relationship. This might seem like a dramatic comparison, but the idea is the same. We need to be protective of our relationship by creating boundaries in these areas: Read More
Will you marry me? ’Til death do us part. I do. For better or for worse. In sickness and in health.
What do these phrases all have in common? Well, we tend to associate all of them with commitment. While what they signify is important, at the end of the day, they’re just words. Commitment can be present even without a formal ceremony or vows, and it can be absent even with those things. The game-changer is how you live out your commitment to each other – the actions and attitudes that reinforce the verbal expression. Without further “I do”, here are five ways to show commitment. Read More
© Prepare/Enrich
