A good marriage requires a lot of effort. The happiest couples are constantly aware of what is needed in their relationship but a lot of couples become complacent over the years or never realize that they need to make efforts on their marriage.
Be Aware of Each Other’s Emotional Needs
The secret to a great marriage is being aware of each other’s emotional needs and meeting these needs. Everyone has a basic need for attention and affection. If you are wondering about making marriage work, start by looking for ways to make your spouse feel more appreciated and let one another know what your desires and needs are. Your relationship will improve once you both become more aware of what the other person needs and make sure that you meet these needs.
Find Things You Genuinely Enjoy Doing Together
What do you usually do when you spend time together? A lot of couples fall into a routine and do not really share any common activities other than watching TV at the end of the day. Find new things you can do together and look for activities that require you to interact with each other. You could introduce your spouse to your favorite sport, pick up a new hobby you can share or travel together.
Learn To Communicate
Do you feel like you can talk about anything with your spouse? Your spouse should be your best friend and you should be able to talk about anything without things escalating into a fight. As you learn to communicate in a healthy manner, you can both express your emotions without feeling judged and so you can focus on finding solutions to problems instead of blaming each other for these issues.
Following are tips to help strengthen your marriage. But first, check out my products related to marriage health.
Spend Some Time Apart
You need to spend some time apart and to have an interesting life outside of your marriage. You might find fulfillment in your career, develop a new hobby or spend some time with your close friends when you need to be away from the house.
Healthy couples spend time apart and get a chance to grow as individuals. You will be a lot happier in your marriage if you can socialize with other people and find fulfillment in other activities. You will also have more to talk about with your spouse if you have a rich life outside of your marriage.
Making marriage work is possible if you are aware that you need to make some efforts to build a strong relationship that will make you and your spouse happier and closer. Talk with your spouse about your marriage to better understand what they expect and to help them understand how you would like things to be. Make a list of concrete things you can do to improve your relationship with your spouse and remember that just small gestures often go a long way.
If you’re not sure of ways to improve your relationship, think about getting new ideas through a marriage class, retreat, books, videos or going to a marriage friendly coach or counselor if you are not sure how to improve your marriage or if you are having a hard time communicating with your spouse.
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.