It can be argued that your marriage is your most important relationship. It’s been proven that a strong marriage can help boost your overall happiness, relieve stress, and make it easier to enforce good parenting. If you’re married, it only makes sense to work on and commit to having a strong matrimonial bond. However, it’s common that the daily grind of life can get in the way of what is truly important–making it necessary to be dedicated to maintaining your bond.
Ideally, your partner provides you with strength and companionship, so a strong marriage means a stronger life. Without further ado, let’s look at a few proven ways to keep your marital bond strong.
Open and Honest Communication
Experts agree that good communication is one of the trademarks of a healthy marriage. The more honest and open your communication is between yourself and your spouse, the healthier the relationship will be. In fact, it’s estimated that most marital tension doesn’t actually come from serious issues, but from a lack of communication about those issues.
To keep your marriage strong, take time to learn how to effectively communicate with one another. Healthy communication goes beyond mere facial expressions and trying to interpret “clues”–you should be transparent and honest with your language. Your spouse does not have to read your mind, and you do not have to read his or hers. Make sure that you always state exactly what you’re thinking and feeling–don’t leave it up to interpretation. Ask for what you want, be upfront about what is concerning you, and never accuse without first knowing the facts. These are all great ways to communicate effectively with your spouse, and once you establish an environment of open communication and honesty, you’ll find that the rest flows naturally. Open communication will, in turn, lead to a happier and more fulfilling marriage.
Play
A healthy sex life is part of a healthy marriage. More than keeping you and your spouse emotionally close, hormones can also keep you bonded and “in-like” more of the time. Many relationship experts agree that a strong sex life can improve upon even the more trivial aspects of your relationship that may grow to become serious down the line–the little things that you find annoying about your partner likely won’t bother you as much if the sex life is strong. If you find that you and your partner need to work on your bedroom life, it is completely normal (and necessary) to take the time to do so.
We’ve already explained how open and honest communication is necessary to a healthy marriage, and this applies to your sex life as well. Don’t be afraid to experiment, and always keep an open mind and open communication with your partner to learn about their likes and dislikes. There’s a good chance that your sex life is going well enough, but just needs a spark of excitement and something new to spice things up a bit. “Many partners find that making use of sex toys keeps things fun and rejuvenates the relationship,” says Kayla Lords from Jack and Jill Adult. Thankfully, buying adult toys online is safer and easier than ever before–just be sure to visit reputable ecommerce sites.
Give
While you need to take care of your own needs, make sure you’re also giving regularly to your spouse. When asked what bit of love advice she’d give the world, Anne Gaston, a woman with 60+ years of marriage experience responded, “Don’t be afraid to be the one who loves the most.” This is beautiful advice, and it’s a great motto to bring into your marriage. It’s normal that sometimes you’ll have a hard season, and sometimes your spouse will. Don’t try to keep things 50/50–marriage isn’t a competition. Instead, just focus on loving and supporting your partner, and the support will be reciprocated when you need it most. After all, one of the best things about marriage is that you have someone to love for the rest of your life.
“A successful marriage requires falling in love many times, always with the same person.” –Mignon McLaughlin
