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Strengthen Your Marriage Archives - Page 2 of 3 - SYMBIS Assessment

Sep 28
Love0

Why It’s Time for an Attitude Check-Up

By Self Reflection 2 Comments

Leslie and I (Les) once took a flight on a Cessna plane after a retreat in northwestern Washington state’s San Juan Islands. We began the flight nervous, having never flown in such a small aircraft. As we soared over the beautiful Cascade Mountains and Puget Sound, our fear dissolved. During that flight, something the pilot said caught our attention: that the attitude of the plane, not the altitude, was the single most important aspect of landing safely. The plane’s attitude is related to the position of its nose as it comes in for a landing. Too high or low, and…

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May 25
Love0

3 Tips for Coping With Competitive In-Laws

By In-laws & Family One Comment

Family relationships can be complicated. This is especially true when you marry and combine families. If your in-laws happen to be competitive, this adds an entirely new layer of issues to navigate. When you were single, you only had to manage the relationships within your immediate and extended families. But when you married your spouse, you gained their family as well. And that means that you multiplied the number of relationships that you now need to manage and nurture in your life. Many people find it difficult to manage their relationships with in-laws. This is often due to a number…

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Jan 26
Love0

My Spouse Has Opposite-Sex Friends. Should I Be Worried?

By Marriage, Relationships 17 Comments

Throughout our lives, we’ll have friends who are of both the same and opposite gender. This is a natural part of life. For some individuals, though, the thought of their spouse having close, opposite-sex friends can be a bit unnerving. Does this sound familiar to you? It’s true that there are occasions when opposite-sex friendships are not appropriate in tandem with your marriage. In general, friendships come and go throughout our lives. But the question about your spouse’s opposite-sex friendship might not be so much about gender itself, but more about whether you and your marriage are being honored. Just…

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Dec 29
Love0

How to Build Your New Year’s Vision Together

By Marriage, Self Reflection No Comments

The New Year is a time for dreaming, building a vision for the future, and setting the goals you want to achieve going forward. As the New Year approaches, you have a tremendous opportunity to support one another in both your personal goals, and your goals as a couple. We believe that this time of year is a wonderful time to truly reconnect with one another, cheer each other on, and go after your dreams side-by-side. So how can you and your spouse build a New Year’s vision together? Read on. See Where Your Goals Align When you talk with…

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Oct 06
Love0

How to Embrace a New Season in Your Marriage

By Marriage 3 Comments

Every couple experiences many seasons of life over the course of their marriage. All these seasons can be related to stages of life, major changes, challenges, stress, loss, abundance, and even the natural cycles that we experience throughout the year. When our marriages enter a new season, we must be able to embrace it in order to continue moving forward together in a healthy way. In this post, we’re going to share a few ways that you can embrace a new season in your marriage. Let’s read on to learn how. 1. Honor the past, but leave it behind. Often,…

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Jul 14
Love0

Emotional Safety in Marriage: Why Does it Matter?

By Intimacy, Marriage 2 Comments

Emotional safety is a critical component of any fulfilling marriage. In order for spouses to be able to be truly vulnerable, open, and honest with one another, emotional safety must exist in the relationship. If a couple does not deliberately make emotional safety a part of their relationship, it will become difficult to overcome obstacles and grow closer to one another over time. In short, emotional safety allows us to fully be ourselves, and it’s required if we want to experience all the blessings marriage has to offer. There are several factors that are needed in an emotionally safe marriage,…

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Jun 09
Love0

How to Grow Together In Your Marriage

By Marriage One Comment

Growth is something we all experience as we go through the seasons of our lives. It’s not unusual to hear married couples talk about how they have changed and evolved as individuals over the years. Allowing ourselves to grow and change as people, in turn, can enrich our marriages. Healthy growth generally involves becoming more mature adults with greater wisdom and life experience. Our growth helps us to step confidently into each phase of life, with valuable lessons we’ve learned in the past. Growing throughout our lives also gives us the chance to impart those lessons to younger generations, including…

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Apr 21
Love0

5 Skills to Improve Communication With Your Spouse

By Communication, Marriage 10 Comments

Communication breakdowns are a common issue in many marriages. Some couples struggle with communication more than others do, and this can be due to differences in personality and communication style. However, working to establish clear and effective communication is key to enjoying a happy marriage in the long term. In order to improve communication in your marriage, there are five realms of communication you must each work to strengthen. Let’s jump right in. 1. Information sharing Sharing information involves the ability to clearly and accurately state your thoughts and feelings without losing yourself in emotion or getting off track. Being…

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Apr 14
Love0

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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Apr 07
Love1

How Expectations and Magical Thinking Affect Your Spouse

By Communication, Marriage, Relationships 3 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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