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How Healthy Boundaries Provide Just the Right Amount of Distance to Connect You
Navigating close relationships can be tricky.
Especially close relationships with family members. Often, you come together for winter holidays, graduations, baby showers or other milestones. And all you want is to gather for some low-conflict, person-to-person bonding. One big happy family. But before long, you may find that your family experiences what many others do.
Always Ranting and Reacting? How to Ensure More Effective Communication in Your Relationships
While effective communication may come easily for some, it is far more difficult for others.
What about you?
Does it seem that communicating with others is increasingly difficult and disrespectful? Do your disagreements feel less like interacting and more like overreacting? Are your rants making their way into your everyday conversations more and more?
You’re not alone. Communication can be tough for many of us, especially when our emotions take over.
What gets in the way?
4 Steps to Effective Listening for Couples
By Elizabeth McMahan
Effective listening is an important skill for couples to learn. Try these four tips for improved communication.
Is Your Second Marriage Doomed to Fail? Best Ways to Beat the Odds
When you marry the first time, there’s usually a special feeling that it will last forever.
When you marry for the second time, however, that feeling may not be there because you’re keenly aware of that your first marriage didn’t last.
Sadly, divorce statistics don’t paint a more encouraging picture for those who have been married before. Some 67% of second marriages and 73% of third marriages end in divorce.
7 Ways Couples Counseling Can Make A Good Marriage Even Better!
There’s a preconceived notion that only couples experiencing relationship issues should see a therapist. While couples counseling is recommended for anyone with marital problems, that’s not the only reason to schedule sessions.
Couples counseling is a great way to get to know your spouse on a deeper level while taking preventative measures to combat any potential problems.
6 Off The Wall, Fun Things You Can Do To Express Your Love
Trying to think of a unique way to express your love to that special someone? Consider these creative off the wall ideas to tell your partner that you care.
Silence Your Inner Critic: 6 Ways to Stop Beating Yourself Up!
“You’ll never be able to do that.”
“What makes YOU so special?”
To some extent, we’re all familiar with this voice inside our head, the one that tells us we’re not good enough, undeserving, etc.
If you’re sick of listening to the abuse, silence your inner critic. Use these six ways to stop beating yourself up.
How To Prevent Financial Disagreements From Destroying Your Relationshipi
Financial disagreements are a major stressor for romantic relationships. Studies have indicated that a large majority of couples report that money causes tension in their relationship. Other research shows that approximately one-third of couples have even said that financial concerns are their biggest stressor.
Financial disagreements may be inevitable, but they don’t have to be the cause of a ruined relationship. It’s important that both you and your partner learn how to prevent money problems from destroying your connection.
7 Communication Techniques to Help You Close the Emotional Distance in Your Relationship
Do you feel miles away from your partner even when you’re sitting right next to each other?
Does it seem like you have run out of things to talk about?
Emotional distance is one of the biggest relationship and marriage killers. In the beginning of your relationship, you felt very close to one another. It was romantic, blissful, and your heart pitter-pattered when you were near each other. Over time, though, the gap between you grew larger and larger.
10 Suggestions for Creating Your Happily Ever After
As young children, most of us were introduced to the concept of ‘happily ever after.’ The formula of childhood fairy tales usually involves an ending where good triumphs over evil and the characters in the story go on to live ‘happily ever after.’
Even as adults, we love the light-hearted romantic comedies in television and movies where the happy ending sees a couple realizing they are meant for each other, their misunderstandings and challenges are resolved, and they ride off into the sunset with a happy future ahead of them.
Avoid Angry, Relationship-Ending Habits: Resolve Conflict This Way
We so often wrongly assume that conflict must mean that something in our relationship is going wrong, but that’s actually not the case at all. Conflict is a natural and yes, even healthy, part of every relationship.
It is not the avoidance of conflict that makes for a good relationship, but how you handle that conflict. Use these tips to resolve conflict appropriately while avoiding angry, relationship-ending habits.
Trying to Trust: How to Make the Most of Second Chances
Trust is an important cornerstone of any relationship – romantic, familial, as well as our friendships. Some people will go as far as to say that trust is the absolute most important part of these relationships; so, when trust is broken, it alters the entire dynamic of the relationship.
Depending on the level of trust that was broken, a relationship may not be salvageable. For those who are willing to give second chances, learning to trust again can be difficult, but it can be accomplished with time. Along with proper communication, the following steps can help you trust again after you’ve been hurt.