For any relationship to stay strong, the couple needs to put in some work. Creating a positive and trusting partnership with your spouse takes time and effort. It doesn’t happen overnight. Below are some tips in maintaining a happy and healthy relationship.
Respect Your Spouse
Respect comes in many forms. Maintaining a healthy and happy relationship involves respecting your spouse’s time, character and trust. Name-calling and talking negatively about your spouse to family and friends can ruin a relationship.
Respecting your spouse also means not cheating on him or her. The ultimate act of disrespect is having an affair with someone else. Other acts of disrespect include misusing money, secrecy, lying, flirting with other people, and not listening to your spouse. Done repeatedly, acts of disrespect can break the other person. If you feel like your spouse is respecting you less, then he or she may be loving you less, too.
Be Financially Transparent
For a relationship to last, couples should look at their relationship as a partnership. Money often becomes a source of friction after years of being together. However, matters of the wallet is equally important as the matters of the heart. Money-related decisions impact a couple whether it’s about getting a joint bank account or sharing assets and properties.
While having a spouse can help you achieve financial stability, it often makes things complicated. The key is to develop a shared approach with regards to financial matters to feel more satisfied and secured with your finances and so that you will never have to file for a divorce, challenge a will, or question each other’s integrity in case a financial issue becomes a reason for you to separate.
Keep a Healthy Communication
One of the secrets to a healthy relationship is communication. However, not everyone strives to be able to communicate properly, or even make an effort to communicate at all. Happy couples remind each other of their love by saying “I love you” more often and complimenting their partners. Instead of sweeping problems under the rug, happy couples discuss issues before moving forward. You will need to talk about your feelings no matter how awkward.
Maintain a Healthy Boundary
Spending time apart is just as important as spending time together with your partner. When two people spend too much time together, it creates an unhealthy codependence. You have to be able to remain independent despite being together. This means having a life outside the relationship.
Show Your Love Language
According to Gary Chapman, there are five kinds of love languages. Each person has a unique way of feeling loved. This includes quality time, words of affirmation, receiving gifts, physical touch and acts of service. When you know which love language speaks to your partner, it will keep the love alive.
If you feel that something needs to be changed, put them on the table and discuss it with your partner. If after a while you notice your spouse’s behavior has changed, remember that you cannot change your partner, only yourself.
