Below are 10 tips to help improve your relationship:
- Work on lowering stress in your life, which might be putting strain on your relationship.
- Take time to talk with your partner about life stresses and how to manage these together. Seek to support each other in times of difficulty.
- Focus on making the positive interactions in your relationship outweigh the negative, by five to one. Remember to show appreciation, gratitude, and care.
- Be open to sharing your views, ideas, and emotions – this builds closeness and understanding. Work on expressing frustration, disappointment, and anger openly and constructively.
- Be open to your partner’s point of view and, rather than jumping to conclusions, seek to understand how your partner thinks and feels, or why he or she might be acting in a certain way.
- Establish that you do indeed share the same values, expectations and standards for your relationship, and work to live by the values important to you.
- When there is conflict make sure to remain respectful of each other. Take time to calm yourselves if needed and return to the discussion later. Make sure you both work to repair any hurt caused.
- Develop a sense of shared meaning in your relationship, by appreciating each other’s roles in the relationship, the goals that link you, and the ways each of you contribute to and influence each other and your shared life.
- Encourage your partner in his or her work, friendships, and activities. Celebrate successes.
- Keep your sense of playfulness, affection, and positive humour alive in your relationship.
Any to add? Let me know.
