Category

Relationships

Why Personality Makes Every Marriage Unique

By Marriage, Relationships One Comment

In marriage as in life, our personalities come through in our behaviors. By observing how someone behaves, we can get a fairly accurate idea of what their personality is like. Our behaviors are particularly revealing in marriage, when we spend a lot of time together, one-on-one. What’s interesting, though, is that spouses don’t always accurately perceive one another’s personalities, despite the amount of time they spend with each other. Much of our personality plays itself out internally, in ways our spouse will never see. That’s why relationship assessments such as SYMBIS are so incredibly useful in counseling couples. SYMBIS results…

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How Better Awareness Builds a Better Marriage

By Marriage, Relationships One Comment

As a professional who counsels couples, you have likely seen the positive effects self-awareness has on relationships. You also understand the pitfalls of couples who are unaware of how they relate to each other, and how they operate as individuals. Often, spouses who are wounded will perpetuate a cycle of hurt, seemingly unable to take an objective view of the situation. For engaged and married couples, becoming more self-aware leads to a better relationship outcome. That’s because self-awareness cultivates deeper empathy. Let’s dig a little deeper into why this is so important. Marriage Assessments Cultivate Self-Awareness Self-awareness gives couples the…

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4 Romance Myths Couples Should Bust Right Now

By Marriage, Relationships No Comments

Modern marriages typically begin with a romantic relationship. Unlike marriages of the past, which were often arranged for political purposes or financial stability, marriages in the Twenty-First Century revolve around the initial rush a couple experiences while falling in love. Unfortunately, as so many licensed counselors and therapists already know, romance isn’t enough to sustain a marriage. There are many factors at play in a successful marriage besides romance, but today’s engaged and married couples may not understand how prominent those factors are. As the butterflies of engagement and early marriage give way to broken expectations and disillusionment, couples often…

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Help! We Need to Raise Our Income

By Careers, Communication, Marriage, Relationships 2 Comments

There are many reasons why you and your spouse might want to raise your income. Maybe you’ve recently taken on a new expense, suffered a pay cut or job loss, or you need to save toward a big goal, such as a vacation or a down payment on a house. Whatever the case, you’ve determined that you need more available money. Luckily, there are a number of ways to free up extra money and raise the amount you’re bringing in. It takes teamwork and shared goals, but the two of you can absolutely work together to make more money for…

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5 Affirmations to Empower Your Spouse

By Communication, Intimacy, Marriage, Relationships 4 Comments

Gifting one another with regular affirmations is a wonderful way for spouses to stay close and remind each other of their affection. If you’re not regularly making an effort to affirm your spouse, then it’s time to start now–and it’s never too late. Affirmations can be simple. The key is to be heartfelt and genuine, and to let your spouse know how much you love and admire them. How well you love your spouse, and the effort you invest in them, will make a tremendous impact on the quality of your marriage. Today, we’ve gathered five simple affirmations to help…

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How to Make Your Marriage Stronger Than Ever

By Marriage, Relationships No Comments

Strengthening your marriage is a goal you and your spouse must focus on for the entirety of your relationship. Over time, making your marriage stronger will take different forms. Your needs as a couple will shift from one season to the next, and many of those needs will be based on your individual personalities and the way you interact with one another. There’s no one-size-fits-all secret to building a strong marriage. The ingredients to success really depend on you, your spouse, and how you approach life as individuals and as a couple. But, that means you must both invest time…

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How Expectations and Magical Thinking Affect Your Spouse

By Communication, Marriage, Relationships 2 Comments

In every marriage, each spouse has their own set of expectations, either spoken or unspoken. These could be regarding the relationship itself, or expectations for one another as individuals. Either way, what we expect of one another can inform much of our relationship, for better or worse. If you and your spouse have experienced conflict over your expectations for one another, you aren’t alone. Expectations go hand-in-hand with something we call magical thinking. In other words, that means making assumptions about one another, rather than seeking the truth from our spouse. Expectations and magical thinking can impact your spouse in…

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How to Encourage Your Spouse to Be a Healthy Individual

By Marriage, Relationships, Self Reflection No Comments

A happy marriage is made of two healthy individuals who come together to combine their lives into one. Through partnership, respect, and love, happily married couples build a life to share for years to come. Part of building that life is encouraging one another to be healthy individuals, in addition to being supportive and healthy spouses. While it might be easy to lose oneself to coupledom and disappear into your relationship, it’s really best for both in the relationship to maintain their sense of individuality as two healthy adults in a loving partnership. It’s possible to lose sight of ourselves…

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4 Ways to Work Together as a Married Team to Achieve Your Goals

By Communication, Marriage, Relationships No Comments

The happiest couples work together to achieve their goals. If you take a close look at the high-achieving couples you most admire, you’ll likely notice that they partner with one another not only in the details of their daily lives, but also in the big adventures they embark upon. Teamwork is the most important foundation couples should build upon, especially when each spouse has big dreams they’d like to achieve. Pursuing goals alongside a marriage, family, and careers can be quite a juggling act. But in the end, supporting one another through the process is worth it. If you’re wondering…

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7 Ways to Renew Joy in Your Marriage

By Intimacy, Marriage, Recreation, Relationships, Time 2 Comments

Daily life is hectic, and it’s a little too easy to forget to live joyfully in the midst of busyness. In marriage as in the rest of life, cultivating joy is essential. Sometimes it takes a little extra effort to make sure we’re giving time and effort to joy. If you’re looking for ways to renew joy in your own marriage, we’ve gathered some quick tips on how to do so. Read on to find out how! 1. Be intimate. When we’re busy and stressed, intimacy is often one of the first things we push to the side. Instead of…

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