If you are having second thoughts about your divorce, you need to take action right away and look for a way to stop this process. You might feel like everything is lost because your spouse has told you they want a divorce or has already filed for a divorce.
Understand You Need To Take Action
Hearing that your spouse wants a divorce or receiving divorce papers is a real blow, but you need to move on and take action. How to stop a divorce depends on your unique situation and you need to put together a plan of action you can follow to convince your spouse to give you another chance.
Listen To Your Spouse
You need to understand why your spouse has decided to give up on the marriage. This might be the result of years of unhappiness or the divorce might have been triggered by a specific event such as an affair. Meet with your spouse so that you can talk about why they want a divorce.
Convince Your Spouse To Give You Another Chance
This is the hardest part of stopping a divorce. You might need to give your spouse some space and some time before asking him or her to give you another chance. You will have to convince them that you understand why they are unhappy and that you are willing to change and do whatever it takes to save the marriage.
Do Something Concrete
Words alone will not save your marriage. You need to show your spouse that you are willing to work on making things better. Show your spouse your action plan, start working on the things you feel are most important and apologize for the things you did if you hurt your spouse.
Rebuild Your Marriage
Finding out how to stop a divorce is only the first step in your journey. Once you have convinced your spouse that you can make things better, you will still have to find a way to rebuild your marriage. This is a process that takes time and you will find that the best marriages are the ones where both spouses constantly make efforts to improve things.
Following are tips to help strengthen your marriage. But first, check out my products related to marriage health.
Give It Some Time
You cannot expect things to get better right away. Reach out to your spouse and let them know you would like to work things out as quickly as possible but it might be best if you spend some time apart.
This could be an occasion to work on yourself and to develop a more detailed action plan to save your marriage. Do not give up if you run into some setbacks or if your spouse is not willing to listen at first.
The key to stopping your divorce is to communicate with your spouse and do everything you can to show him or her that you want to change and make things better. Remember that saving your marriage is not something that you can do overnight and don’t hesitate to seek outside help.
Often a good marriage counselor, coach or marriage therapist can assist you with a perspective that is difficult to maintain when you are the ones experiencing all the marriage pain.
Please do some research of your own to find someone that regularly is successful in helping couples bring back their joy and save their marriages. If you prefer to work in person with someone in your area, be sure they are what I call a “marriage friendly” counselor.
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.