First Christmas Together? Merge Your Holiday Traditions
The holidays can be challenging when you’re newlyweds. Mainly because you both you’re your own unique holiday and family traditions that you hold dear to your hearts and would like to continue to uphold. Sometimes these traditions conflict. For instance, if one of you always had a live, Douglas Fir…
Being Married Isn’t Supposed to be Stressful!
Marriage is supposed to be a source of comfort. It’s meant to help you mitigate stress and pressure from other areas from other areas of your life. This is not to say that marriage should be hunky-dory all the time. It means that the good should always outweigh the bad….
Is Love All You Need?
Can a marriage succeed on love alone? Some people seem to think so! It’s why there are so many songs, movies,books and other creative works called “love is all you need.” The truth, though, is that it all depends on your definition of love. If you think love is a…
Put Your Ego In Timeout
It’s surprising how far we’ll go to defend ourselves and our egos. We will lash out, rationalize and basically stop at nothing to justify our ego-based feelings and actions. Many marriages, way too many, have ended in divorce just because the spouses couldn’t put their ego aside. Here’s a guide…
Gratitude Makes You a Better Spouse
Once again, it’s time to get together with family, enjoy some good food and be thankful. But before you get caught up in the holiday rush, spend a couple of minutes being grateful for your spouse and your marriage. Here’s why. It keeps you positive Gratitude makes you more positive…
Getting Along WIth Your Partner’s Friends
Not getting along with your partner’s friends can be a source of great conflict in your marriage. This is especially true if your husband or wife has known them for a long time. The last thing you want is for them to feel as if they have to choose between…
Rules of Engagement for a Healthy Marriage
Far fewer couples would have marriage problems they created a healthy marriage code. A code is a set of rules/principles/behaviors that you are determined to follow regardless of your situation or circumstances. Having rules reinforces the structural integrity of the marriage and keeps external forces from tearing your marriage apart….
Enjoy Conversations with your Spouse
Do you enjoy talking to your spouse? Do you just talk about superficial, small-talk stuff like what’s the weather or work, or do you also share your hopes, dreams, feelings and fears? Opening your heart to your spouse in loving conversation requires vulnerability, which is obviously not easy. Here are some tips…
Be Proud of Yourself and Your Marriage
All relationships and marriages go through difficult times. Marriage problems are not an indictment of your abilities or lack thereof and should never be taken as such. Your self-confidence should not depend on how well your marriage is doing. It takes two self-confident people to make a marriage work. In…
Take Care of Yourselves!
Having fun, sharing hobbies and being adventurous together is an essential part of marriage, and you need to be healthy to enjoy it. You may have vowed to stand by each other in sickness and in health but marriage is a lot easier when you both take good care of…