The best marriages are the ones where both spouses make a conscious choice to invest in their relationship and to be
the best spouse they can be. If you are not entirely satisfied with your marriage or if you argue a lot, it is time to make a few changes and focus on building a strong marriage.
Bring Some Love Back Into Your Relationship
Do you remember what things were like when you first started dating? If you feel that love is missing from your marriage, there are a few things you can do to improve the relationship. Having fun together should be a priority and you should focus on small daily gestures to show your spouse that you care. You could for instance call them during the day to say that you love them, write them a love note or surprise them with a small gift.
Spend Some Quality Time Together
When was the last time you spent quality time with your spouse? You probably spend time together every day, but might not really acknowledge or actively engage with each other. You need to spend more quality time together, for instance by planning some activities that you both enjoy. Try to have a date night once a week and look for new things you can do together.
Talk About Everything
You should be able to talk about everything with your spouse. It is important that you never judge each other and always make each other feel valid and appreciated. Listen to your spouse when they are expressing something and encourage them to always share more. Open up to your spouse and let them know how you feel about them, about the relationship or about any issues you are dealing with at the moment. How often in your life, do you actually feel someone is truly listening.
Following are tips to help strengthen your marriage. But first, check out my products related to marriage health.
Address Potential Issues
You are naturally going to encounter some issues and disagree on some things. You will need to address these things as early as possible to prevent negative feelings from developing. You need to talk about important things such as parenting or how you spend your money. You also need to talk about the marriage itself so that you and your spouse have a clear idea of what the other expects from the relationship. You cannot have a strong marriage without taking a pro-active approach and looking for solutions to issues that could potentially turn into sources of conflict.
You can build a great marriage if you and your spouse are committed to this idea and want to grow old together. You can attend marriage retreats, join marriage groups, read books or listen to videos or audios about attributes of a good marriage. You can also talk to your married friends to find out they nurture their marriage.
Take the time to talk to your spouse about your marriage and about what they would like to do to help the relationship grow or to fix things if you have been encountering difficulties in your marriage. Your marriage will become stronger as you acknowledge any issue and look for ways to resolve it.
Waverly Hanson
Marriage Counselor & Author
In my personal life, I have had a long successful marriage and have remarried following my husband's death. I have had three sons and helped raise a niece for three years and have seven grandchildren. I have loved spending time with them as they were growing up.
I also enjoy getting together with family and friends, ATVing in the mountains, photography, hiking, and traveling. I also enjoy reading, creating art, decorating, and serving others by volunteering.
Assisting couples in rebuilding their marriages has been so rewarding as I've had the privilege of seeing hundreds of couples reunite and get back to being positively connected to one another.
I also work with personal development and those who want to move forward by making positive improvements such as goal setting, self-care, boundaries, behavioral improvements, overcoming procrastination, conflict management, etc.