This Habit is one of the 10 Habits of Happy Couples Tina and Michael LeBlanc write about in their blog and in their book released in Fall 2022. To check out the other Habits, check the index. To really use these Habits to work on your relationship, you can access their book – The 10 Habits of Happy Couples – which gives you complete examples of each Habit and exercises that you can do with your partner to develop these Habits in your relationship.
About the Authors
Tina and Michael LeBlanc are, co-founders of Better Yourself 365, Licensed Counselling Therapists, Authors of relationship books, and a happily married couple. All of their services are tailored to busy, overstretched couples. Tina and Michael help couples work efficiently as a team by teaching them the essential habits to create a strong, loving connection.
Thinking that a relationship means being totally head over heels with each other all the time is unrealistic. This feeling might last for a few years (or less), but then life happens, and lots of ups and downs come along.
So, expecting things to be easy and always happy can lead to difficulties. A lot fewer divorces would occur if people had two different expectations instead: That love is a constant commitment to your partner and that love is constantly evolving and changing.
Accept that successful relationships require a constant commitment to your partner regardless of life circumstances. Life throws curve balls, and we need to ensure we don’t let them get in the way of our relationship. Troubles could come along in the form of the loss of a job, a health issue, the loss of a loved one, or the long-held relationship fears your partner has. This is a much harder part of love that involves tears, anger, arguments and hurt at times. But if you keep focused on your partner and your bond, a deeper and stronger love has a chance to develop through these tough times, just like it did for us (the authors).
Get okay with riding the waves of a relationship – the ebbs and flows that are natural in our lives. Remember that a love that is alive is constantly evolving. People face challenges, and they change and grow. They need their partner to grow with them. They can’t be pegged into a way of being that you knew when you met. They need to be able to grow.
There’s a book we read together when we first met that we both love. It’s a Shel Silverstein book called “The Missing Piece Meets the Big O”.
It’s about learning to become yourself in the comfort of a relationship that allows you the space. Check it out. It’s beautifully written.
The more you learn how to do this with your partner, you’ll notice that the ‘downs’ don’t last as long, and the ‘ups’ are much more satisfying.
As Antoine Saint-Exupery wrote, “Love does not consist in gazing at each other, but in looking outward together in the same direction.”
If you are one of those people who get a thrill from high emotions, or your instinct is to bail when things get too hard, you need to seriously take a look at that and ask yourself where this is coming from. Learning how to stick it out through the hard times actually makes your love stronger. So perhaps you need to get the help to process this further to investigate where this habit was born so you can make some changes. The behaviour likely makes sense based on your past life experiences, but it’s no longer serving you well if it’s causing problems in your current relationship.
But right now, think about your partner. You chose this person as your partner for a reason. Deep down, you care for them and want what’s best for them. Be grateful to have someone willing to be by your side through the ups and downs of life. That helps strengthen the bond between you.
One tip to help you focus on the positives is to keep a Gratitude Journal or Gratitude Jar. Every day, write something about your partner that you are grateful for. Gratitude journalling has been shown to be very effective in increasing our joy. And the journals can be used for the purpose of increasing our appreciation of our partners.
And remember that enduring difficult times makes you stronger. If you stick with focusing on the positives and get the help you need when it gets too hard, it’s totally worth it on the other side. Give yourself that chance to get to that stronger, deeper bond.
Psychologist Carol Dweck introduced the concept of a Growth Mindset, which is the ability to bounce back from setbacks and view mistakes as opportunities for learning. We believe this concept can also be applied to and improve your relationships.
This includes being firm when necessary, setting boundaries as an act of self-care. These elements, when combined, form the foundation of a strong, resilient relationship.
Individuals have preferred ways of connecting with their partners, such as physical touch or deep conversations. We stress the importance of understanding and accommodating each other’s styles through open communication, fostering mutual respect and harmony.
Understanding and openly sharing core emotions like sadness, fear, shame, loneliness, hurt, surprise, and joy can lead to deeper connections in your relationships.
Attachment, a term often used by researchers to describe the emotional bonds we form with significant others, is the foundation for how relationships function. In this blog post, we explain the intricate dynamics of adult attachment styles, and how they shape the way we feel and act in our relationships.
Better Yourself First refers to how stronger individuals lead to a stronger couple. A healthy relationship needs two healthy individuals. This is a core belief for us here at BetterYourself365. Our whole philosophy as a company is based on this.