Maneuvering relationships is challenging, particularly for couples or marital partners. After 30 years of couples counseling, I have learned that offering you tools to improve your interactions without changing your core values gives great success in making lasting changes. I am offering you a few tips to apply, with or without entering counseling.
1. Recognize relationships REQUIRE time: time alone, with friends and family, playing together, working on projects together, traveling together, relaxing together, raising kids together, praying together, etc. This means one must use INTENTION to place the relationship a priority as well as tradeoff time spent doing other things. Note that this means you give up other valuable personal or professional time to make your relationship have the nurturing it needs to thrive!
2. Recognize relationships REQUIRE your own self awareness too. What Kind of partner am I? Would I want to be in a relationship with myself? Do I allow confrontation when I am forgetting to be more respectful, more giving, more appreciative, more helpful, more affectionate? The reality for healthy, successful relationships REQUIRES effort on each persons’ part to identify and make SUSTAINED improvements to be a TEAM. One’s attitude toward their role and their own change makes ALL the difference.
Love is destroyed when self-interest is the dominate force. For more tips, or if your relationship needs a mediator to overcome an impasse, we would welcome helping you. Reading this is a great start! Call us at 770-271-5040 to schedule an appointment.
