When you marry someone, you are stating that you would like to spend the rest of your lives together. This is a major commitment for everyone and health and happiness usually don’t come easy. There is a lot of work that must be put into building and maintaining a strong marriage and family life. During these times, this goal can seem especially hard for many couples who are stressed out about current events and the challenges that they are currently facing on a personal level. While you may be willing to put in the work, you may not know what steps to take next. Here are a few tips to help make your marriage happy and healthy for many years to come.
Split the Chores Between Each Other
In the past, it was a tradition that the woman in the marriage took care of the vast majority of household cleaning responsibilities. While this may work in rare cases, studies have shown that healthy households share the chores. If you or your partner are not used to cleaning, you will have to be willing to ask each other questions to ensure that you are doing it properly. You may not know how to remove blood from sheets after your kid got a nosebleed in the middle of the night, but your partner very well might, and all you have to do is ask.
Take Time for Yourself
If you do not have your own mental health taken care of, you will not be able to focus on the health of your relationships properly. Take the time to discover more about yourself instead of just focusing on the needs of your partner. This will help you grow in many ways and put you in a better position for your relationships with your family.
Take Some Time to Be Alone Together
Finding moments to be able to spend together as a couple can be difficult now more than ever, but it’s extremely important. Having time with your partner is one of the most important things that you can do for your marriage and it should not be overlooked even if you and the family are busy. Even if you can’t go on vacation, it is still possible to have a date night at home where you can enjoy your favorite food and movies alone. This time is very important as you may be able to learn a lot about your partner which can help build your relationship up to be even stronger.
Do Things You Both Enjoy
Exploring common interests is a great way to help your relationship grow. Most couples get together in part because of what they have in common. Having your own interests and activities is important, but engaging in the ones that you share can have a great effect on your lives and bring the two of you even closer.
Practice Forgiveness
While there are some actions that can break a marriage, there are many that can be forgiven and then grown from. It’s inevitable that people in relationships will end up hurting or upsetting you in some way, but how you react is important. Forgiveness is something that should be practiced by both and not abused. It’s important to not only apologize for your mistakes but to also work to fix problems and change your behavior for the future to keep your marriage strong.
Work on Communication Skills
It’s important to be able to express your own feelings as well as listening to and understanding the feelings of your partner as well. There are a lot of resources to help with this process that can be used at home, such as books or online courses. Proper communication takes time and practice, but it’s worth the effort.
Negotiate Conflicts
Not every disagreement or problem should lead to an argument. Learning how to negotiate the conflicts that you and your partner will face in life will help you get over the hurdles that all marriages inevitably face. Improperly handled conflict can lead to an emotionally and sometimes even physically damaging situation so it’s important to be able to understand the problems you are facing.
Photo by Vince Fleming on Unsplash
Author: Mandy Kloppers
Mandy is a qualified therapist who treats depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, trauma, and many other types of mental health issues. She provides online therapy around the world for those needing support and also provides relationship counselling.
