The State of Marriage can affect the State of Health

The way we relate to each other is of course important, but never as important as when one spouse is ill or injured. Any stress can negative affect the outcome, recovery, and side effects of surgery, but marital stress appears to play an even greater role. Studies indicate that there is such a strong mind/body connection between spouses that marital discord can delay healing or even lead to complications when surgery is at issue. This is how profoundly we affect one another, which shows us that things we often think of as “no big deal,” may often be a very … Continue reading →

Improve Your Physical Relationship

When you are married, the physical side of your relationship is often equated with the intimacy between you and your spouse. While the physical expression of your love is a part of intimacy, you can be greatly intimate with your spouse and still need to improve the physical side of your relationship. This can happen for a multitude of reasons whether it’s the arrival of a new baby, a change in careers or just that you and your spouse have become very comfortable with your lives and that level of comfort in your choices and physical relationship also diminishes the … Continue reading →

When You’re Angry At God or The Universe

The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong – Mahatma Gandhi Whether you are religious or spiritual, you likely believe in some reality that transcends the limitations of our mortal coil. So much of what happens to us may seem out of our control – an illness in the family, being laid off from a job, allergies, caring more for someone than that someone cares for us. It can be easy to get angry at the universe or the Divine and to close yourself off from any possibilities of happiness. For some of us, it can … Continue reading →

Don’t Let Helplessness Control Your Happiness

Helplessness is a major contributor to marriage conflict, disagreements and even depression. The sense that you have no control over your environment and that nothing you do can affect it can leave you ineffectual and helpless. A sense of helplessness can create increased psychological stress on your life and on every interaction you have. Too often, we get caught up on a runaway train of coping with financial problems such as getting our bills paid, saving up for holidays and events. Changes in technology such as trying to get through to report a problem with something can leave us frustrated … Continue reading →

Unhealthy Relationships

Relationships are something we have from the moment we are born until we die. Healthy or unhealthy, our relationships begin with our parents, families, schoolmates, friends and so on. Every one of these relationships can help us, enrich us, and make us better people as well as simply give us joy. Unhealthy relationships rarely promote any of these feelings. Unhealthy relationships can leave us feeling uncomfortable, sad and afraid. It is very difficult for people to let the realization set in that perhaps a friend, co-worker or family member isn’t treating them well or respectful, as they should be. It … Continue reading →

Marriage Secrets: How to Stay In Love

We talked about marriage secrets a couple of days ago, but let’s talk about a secret of marriage that we all want access too. This secret, of course, is how to stay in love. We all want to be in love with our spouses. Who wouldn’t want to be in love? Being in love is a wonderful feeling and it’s incredibly uplifting and it’s intoxicating. What can be more incredible and intoxicating than being in love with your spouse? So How Do You Stay In Love? The keys to staying in love begin with accepting that love doesn’t just happen … Continue reading →

Sleeping Together – The Benefits and the Challenges

When you’re married, we talk about sharing the marriage bed and the intimacy that creates. This is about more than sexual desire, however, it’s about the spooning, and the snoozing, the snuggling and the stealing the sheets that couples do when they sleep together. Sleeping is and of itself a very individual activity and while you may snuggle with your spouse and wake up to them, when you are sleeping – it’s not usually one we consider a joint activity. Millions of Couples Sleep Together The truth is, millions of us do share our beds and we do sleep with … Continue reading →

The 5 Most Incompatible Relationship Types

More often than not, relationships don’t always work out and when they don’t, we try to categorize them into relationship types that are incompatible. My problems with these incompatibility thoughts are the fact that they, unlike the relationships themselves, work in sweeping generalities. Among relationship types, the following 5 are what are considered the most incompatible: Missionary Relationships Sacrificial Relationships Exotic Relationships Unequally Aged Relationships Rebellious Relationships So what defines these relationship types? Here is a little bit about these 5 most incompatible relationship types so you can understand the generalities they are talking about. Missionary relationships are defined as … Continue reading →

Ten Tips to Building a Strong, Smart Marriage

Everything in life is based on perception. Our perceptions of the world around us suggest how we handle everything from our interpersonal relationships to how much faith we put into our fellow man. Positive experiences breed positive viewpoints, so forth and so on. So here are ten tips to help you make better choices and decisions about your marriage and how you let perception affect you. Our interpersonal differences and disagreements are not the problem; how we cope with them determines whether our not we will be successful in our marriage Our marriages are more important than we may initially … Continue reading →

My Spouse is an Addict

Addiction is a dangerous thing for anyone, when your spouse is an addict it’s not just his or her health that is affected, but the health and well being of your entire family. I am not an expert of addiction, but there are plenty of resources out there for you to seek out help. When a person struggles with an addiction, more often than not they don’t even realize they have a problem. Their addiction can impair their judgment as well as create conflict, behavioral changes and other symptoms that may be observed. They say that those closest to the … Continue reading →