Do you and your partner find yourselves not wanting to spend as much time together anymore?

Would you like to get back to the honeymoon phase when you were inseparable?

When couples are in the honeymoon phase, they enjoy each other’s company and want to be together ALL the time. They can’t stand being apart.

Sadly, this feeling doesn’t last forever. After a while, they begin noticing things about their partner that they hadn’t noticed before. Sometimes, they find themselves liking the people they married less and less each day.

Some couples stop talking to each other because they can no longer have a serious conversation without arguing.

And since they no longer feel a deep connection to each other, intimacy in marriage suffers as a result.

Acceptance
One of the reasons why couples stop getting along is because they become less accepting of their spouse and increasingly less tolerant.

They are frustrated because they are constantly wishing that their spouses were better listeners, more romantic, more patient or something of the sort.

You know you’ve accepted your spouse as he or she is when you no longer react in anger to their bad habits – when you accept the truth that it’s not up to you to change them.

Acceptance starts with respect and appreciation. When you truly respect your spouse and appreciate their efforts, it’s easy to accept the things that are not so great about them (and we all have things about ourselves that aren’t so great.)

Listening
Couples who don’t talk to each other anymore, or don’t enjoy spending time with each other as much as they used to, have usually fallen into the habit of talking AT each other; they don’t listen. And since they don’t listen, they jump to conclusions instead of really trying to find out what their partner is saying/meaning.

Active listening requires you to listen attentively to the words AND underlying emotions, while asking clarifying questions along the way.

This ensures that you respond accurately to what your partner is communicating and not to a faulty interpretation you’ve created in your own mind.

Space
This marriage advice might surprise you, but giving each other a little space is probably the easiest fix in the process of shifting from not enjoying each other’s company to wanting to be around each other once again. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder.

Finding a good balance between spending time together and spending time on individual interests is one way to start enjoying each other’s company again.

Many couples go through phases where they do not want to talk to each other or spend time together. This marriage advice is not meant to keep you from going through those phases but rather to keep you from getting stuck there.