Make it a priority to communicate from a place of love and respect.
Want to be two super happy peas in a pod?
These promises are designed for action.
Every day of the new year.
1. Turn Off Technology
The noisy interruptions of technology can make you feel as though you’re a mouse on a treadmill.
The irony is that sometimes all of that convenience can actually mean you end up doing less, as you’re distracted by social media, text messages and everything else.
The solution is to turn it all off for an hour per day.
At first, experiencing the world sans technology will be like being in a weird post-modern art project. You can lie on the bed together and listen to music, talk or read books.
The result is a return to real-time, visceral human connection!
2. Be More Grateful
If you want to boost your own happiness with each other, and within yourself, you should express gratitude to your partner about what he or she does for you.
Recent research indicates that doing so will boost the positivity levels and feel good vibes in your relationship.
Simply saying thanks for specific actions creates a feedback loop, it will make you feel good and make your partner feel good too.
Make a New Year’s commitment to gratitude and express this at least once a day in words or affection.
If you’re grateful that he took the dog for a walk, give him a huge hug and tell him so.
3. Be Interested in Your Partner’s World
Sometimes we human beings have a tendency to tune out mid-way through conversations. Especially when we have a lot on our plate or we’re stressed.
When he goes off on a tangent about his favourite sport team, or when she vents about an annoying person at work, try to stay engaged in the conversation.
If you do feel that you’re zoning out a lot of the time, really make an effort to listen to what your partner says.
It can help you rediscover the mannerisms and little quirks that you feel for to begin with.
For more tips on getting to know your partner on a profound level again, eHarmony’s relationship expert, Jenni Trent-Hughes has a YouTube video that can really help.
Don’t assume that you know everything about your partner.
What people like and what interests them changes all of the time.
Be interested in your partner’s reading habits, dreams and aspirations and talk about them.
4. Have a Better Physical Relationship
If you would like to change things, speak up.
Women can tend to err on the side of caution when communicating about this to avoid causing offence or distress.
Men on the other hand generally want to feel that they’re good at pleasing their partners.
This can lead to sex communication being left like an elephant in the room.
Instead, make it a priority to communicate about it from a place of love and respect.
5. Be Your Own Person
Think of what used to make you happy – like going to see bands, playing tennis or whatever else used to set your world on fire – then reinstitute these activities in your life.
Widen your circle of friends and spend time with them, away from your partner.
It’s healthy for you both to have interests.
Then once you return back to your partner, you’ll be bursting at the seams with new topics of conversation.
Good luck with injecting more sparkle into your relationship!
What’s Your Opinion?
- What’s the first one you’re going to tackle?
- Do you allow your partner to truly be themselves?
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Express your thoughts, in the comments below.
These are some of the foundation stones of relationships, brought to you by our good friends over at eHarmony. Make them a core part of your life and experience the joy of the outcomes.
GuestAccount – who has written 73 posts on GeekandJock.
The main rule is, “Be your own Person”. I totally agree with that.
Eric and I try to make a point of putting at least our phones in some other room so we don’t interrupt our own private time so that is certainly one that works for us.
Like the other points too so we need to put them in action for more smooch time lol
What great reminders! It is so important to stay true to the person you were before you met – that is afterall who your partner fell in love with! I think it is so important to turn off technology and just be present. That’s also a good time to be grateful, and maybe express that gratitude with your partner. Think I might have to implement a few of these tonight!
Thanks for the visit and comment, Janine.
Gratitude is indeed a powerful life force in us all, if we choose to understand and use it.
What were you thinking of implementing with your partner, by the way? Just curious.