Steps for strengthening relationships – www.fitrelationships.blogspot.com
No matter how old or new your relationship is, the steps below will help take it from strength to strength ensuring you survive the rough patches that all relationships encounter.
1: Committed Relationship
Have a shared vision of your relationship and what commitment means for both of you. Define what a healthy relationship means and how to work together to create and achieve common goals.
2: Accept Differences
Recognize, accept, and appreciate each other’s differences based on gender, family history, racial, ethnic, or cultural background, education, religion, values, etc.
3: Communicating Effectively
Learn to be better active listeners and how to communicate needs clearly. Asking needs rather than criticizing your partner by avoiding defensiveness, contempt, blaming, and stonewalling.
4: Problem Solving
Solving problems and resolving and regulating conflicts in ways that enhance your union and strengthen your bond.
5: Working through an Issue
Work through an issue and create an action plan with steps to evaluate the effectiveness of the plan as well as the ability to seek and obtain help when necessary.
6: Managing Emotions
Learn to manage difficult emotions, such as anger, sadness, fear, embarrassment, or betrayal. Couples need to become more aware of their own emotions during difficult conversations or conflict situations so that they do not become caught up in the emotion but rather deal with the issue at hand.
7: Address Hidden Issues
Identify events that trigger deeper issues and themes in your relationship and learn how to become more aware of their expectations and ways expectations can be modified to improving your relationship.
8: Facing Challenges Together
Better understand family patterns and look at healthy ways to cope with challenges. Also understand the importance of forgiveness and learn ways to ask and offer forgiveness.
9: Strengthening Parenting
A healthy marriage is the foundation of raising healthy children; thus the need to work as a team by sharing responsibilities and supporting each other in parenting decisions at each step of the family life cycle.
10: Creating Shared Meaning
Developing a strong friendship is key to a loving relationship, understand each other’s perspectives and dreams, spend and enjoy time together, create shared goals, strengthen emotional connections, enhance physical intimacy, and build mutual trust and commitment.
Conflict can push people away from each other or pull them into a closer, more loving union; it can bring about a complete disconnect or one of unity and a deeper mutual understanding. Few people accept the fact that conflict is part of life and actually provides an opportunity for self-growth and development.
One in two marriages will end in divorce…so what are the top factors contributing to this trend and how can this trend be reversed?
If you’ve ever yearned for a connection, wanted more intimacy in your relationship, or worried that you and your partner are falling out of love – then Imago Relationships are here to help.
Imago Relationship Theory and Principles help understand how our mental image of love and differences can help improve communication in your personal relationships with your partner and children and in the professional world.