When you decided to marry the love of your life, you expected to live happily ever after. That was your dream. However, if your marriage is like the other 99% and hasn’t ended up working out the way you expected, you’re not alone. The good news for you is that as long as you are still breathing, you still have the chance to improve your married life and continue living life with a happier marriage. The mere fact that you were knocked down once doesn’t mean you have to stay down and give up fighting for your relationship.
If your marriage is not really working out the way you wanted it to be, you can work upon that. The association called marriage is an awesome union of two unique people who have decided to spend their lives together and raise new generations based on their values and culture.
However, like everything else in life, It necessarily requires ongoing efforts and constant nurturing to keep the spark in the relationship alive. It’s important to take the time to invest in your relationship and keep the love and romance alive. In this article, we’ll discuss some easy ways to make your marriage better. Here are simple, practical steps you can immediately start with today to improve your marriage.
Communication is the bedrock of any relationship, but it is especially critical in marriage. The key to communication is to develop strong listening skills. Make it a point to spend time talking with your spouse daily and listen patiently to what they have to say.
Do not directly interrupt or attempt to solve their problems. Simply listen and express empathy with them. Be open and honest with one another, even if your feelings aren’t always positive. Communication is a two-way street, so make sure you’re both speaking and listening.
Communicating effectively sounds simple, but it can be difficult at times, especially if the issue is of a critical nature. The issue has become critical because of accumulated frustrations, and other circumstances.
Therefore you need to consider your options before speaking in such a situation. Rather than listening to each other, you have already become critical of another.
Compliments have been replaced with criticism, and either one of the partners has strongly made up their minds to cause harm to the relationship and damage it further. Make an effort to keep your words under control before they cause further damage to your marriage.
There are people, things, and behaviours that are detrimental to the success and survival of a successful marriage. Spending quality time with each other and good communication skills are helpful tools to figure out the roadblocks in an otherwise happy marriage and start working on eliminating those roadblocks.
It could be a third person who is constantly causing friction in the relationship, or it could be personal habits like money matters, hanging out with friends, or spending too much time binge watching television or even other personal habits, which may be irritating.
It’s generally the small stuff that is causing daily friction in the marriage and is slowing eating away into the intimacy and the happiness that was once present when you got married. It’s fairly simple to identify the things that cause stress in your home and marriage. Start identifying them and taking the steps to reduce them, and your marriage will start improving almost immediately.
Everyone wants to be appreciated, including your spouse. Thank them for the little things they do for your and express gratitude for the contributions that they have made in your life, no matter how small it may be. The biggest mistake that both partners in a marriage are guilty of is to take each other for granted once they settle down in a relationship. Expressing gratitude towards your spouse for what he/she is can help your spouse feel valued and loved.
Make your spouse feel valued and appreciated. Appreciating your spouse is one of the simplest ways to improve your marriage. People want to know that what they do is important. Make it a point to tell your spouse how much you appreciate what he or she does for you and your marriage. It will go a long way towards creating the ideal relationship of your dreams that you always dreamt of before your married.
Comparing your marriage with other so called happier marriages is the easiest thing to do for any married couple. It’s easy to compare your relationship to that of other happier married couples. The only thing is that you have no idea how their marriage is going because you are either not staying with them or do not have enough information regarding their married life to arrive at a logical conclusion.
If you really did have a chance to swap your happier marriage with theirs in reality, you might be sorry. Infidelity, mental or emotional abuse, neglect, or divorce are all possibilities. Wasting your time and energy on wishing for someone else’s marriage, it is a wise choice to focus your time and energy to improving your own.
Your marriage will never be perfect because no marriages are perfect. Human beings themselves have been built for imperfection. The biggest secret of long lasting marriages is the characteristic of imperfection between the partners. Rather than striving for perfection, it is wise to accept your partner’s imperfections the way they are and be happy. However, accepting each other’s imperfections does not imply that you take each other for granted.
Since a marriage is a long term commitment, planning and purpose are required for marriage improvement. Set common goals as a couple and always consider the next stage of your marriage to be the most important period of your life, whether you are planning to be proud parents, or planning your retirement.
Your future depends on the next year or two from today, so don’t just sit back and hope for the best. Your actions today can influence what happens tomorrow, but it takes preparation. What things can you do for and with your spouse to improve your marriage? Set aside a date with your partner some time each week to brainstorm and reflect on this question. You’ll be surprised at how planning to improve your marriage can actually lead to a better marriage in the long term.
Romance doesn’t have to die after the honeymoon phase. Keep the spark alive by surprising your spouse with small gestures, like a love note or a thoughtful gift.
Physical intimacy is also important in a marriage, so make sure you’re both making an effort to connect on a physical level. Warm up the weekends with a massage or a hot shower together, or set up a date night once in a week or a fortnight with a romantic dinner.
If you have kids, drop the kids at their grandparents and head out for a romantic weekend. Keeping the romance alive in a marriage takes the stress off the daily life and keeps the marriage fresh and alive.
In any relationship, particularly so in the case of a marriage, no partner is perfect, and mistakes will occur. It is critical to practise forgiveness and to let go of the daily grudges. Holding onto anger and resentment on the small stuff can harm your relationship and make moving forward difficult.
When you’re wrong, accept that you’re wrong and apologise, and forgive your spouse when/she apologises. Holding grievances and hurt in the otherwise happy marriage not only affects your physical health, but also your mental health once you start aging gradually. The key to a happier marriage and for that matter any relationship, is forgiveness and moving away from the feelings of guilt.
This is especially the case if your partner is petty and disrespectful. You must, however, decide what you want. Do you want to repair your marriage or avenge your spouse? I’m not suggesting you become a doormat and let your spouse walk all over you. There is no need, however, to respond to every stupid and possibly immature thing your spouse does. You must be the mature one in order to improve your marriage. Instead of vengeance, be respectful.
In conclusion, realising the dream of a happier marriage requires effort, commitment, and understanding the psychology of your partner or spouse. Communication, quality time, appreciation, teamwork, romance, and forgiveness are all key components to making your marriage better.
Remember that the road to a happier marriage is not about perfection but rather about putting in the effort to build a strong and healthy relationship. Any relationship, particularly marriage, is all about compromises and sacrifices rather than the self and the ego. Any relationship takes time to grow and has to be nurtured continuously over a period of time. Putting a wonderful relationship like marriage on auto pilot mode is a sure shot recipe for disaster in the long term.