Keeping any relationship healthy and loving requires concerted effort from both parties involved. Yet, there’s no gainsaying the fact that every relationship will have its fair share of clashes and misunderstandings. Knowing the ways to save your relationship at such times could be very vital for its survival.
Such knowledge is important because such periods often create feelings of hurt and resentment, pains, and sufferings of different degree by one or both partners.
Both partners in a relationship are to varying degrees different from each other. Consequently, they’re bound to have divergent views, interests, and aspirations.
There are times when their quirky personality differences can easily lead to offences. And frankly, most of these offences are generally not intentional.
For the health of a relationship, it’s best for any conflict or sticky misunderstandings to be resolved at the time they occur.
If they’re instead bottled up by one or both partners, they can easily snowball into bigger problems for the relationship.
While every relationship is different, they all basically go through almost the same types of problems. Thus, an understanding of the reasons behind why most misunderstandings happen in a relationship could be a lifesaver.
Such understanding could be a very essential tool to help partners fix teething issues the relationship might be encountering. It could also help prevent future conflicts from degenerating into more complex problems.
This article takes a look at some of the most effective ways to save your relationship if it’s struggling at the moment. The hereunder listed points are a few ways through which you can easily achieve this.
Knowing them will definitely be of immense benefits in solving most of the common problems that so often-beset relationships.
1. Admitting and Identifying the Problem
If we feel there are problems and misunderstandings in the relationship, then there’s need to admit to the problem’s existence. This is the first process to go through when attempting to solve any other type of problems in life.
Without owning up to the fact that there’s a problem, there’s no way we can go about solving it.
If there’s fighting and flaring of tempter every now and then, pretending that everything is okay will only be foolish. Also, believing that the problems will naturally go away will not be of any advantage to the relationship.
Thus, simply disregarding relationships problems and pretending they do not exist will not help in solving them.
Yet, it’s very important to try and identify the real problem itself. This is important because the root causes of most problems are often much deeper than meets the eye.
We need to dig deeper at the roots of the conflicts and get past the symptoms of the problems.
For instance, an affair in a relationship is mostly a symptom of a problem with the relationship. At times, the real problem may be the lack of intimacy in the relationship.
Without diagnosing the real problem and fixing it, there’s every likelihood of a reoccurrence and even a potential breakup.
2. Communicate Your Needs to Your Partner
Most couples too often assume that their partners just don’t care about their needs and wants.
However, the reality is that most partners simply fail to understand that their spouses cannot read their minds. As a result, there’s no way their partner can know what it is that they are thinking about.
Thus, both partners need to communicate their feelings and needs to each other in clear and unambiguous terms. There’s also the need to open up channels of effective communication in the relationship.
[adrotate group=”1″]Perhaps, the most important aspect of communicating with your partner is the act of being able to listen emphatically. Through open and honest communication, spouses will find it easier letting each other know just what they want.
Also, open and honest communication will make it easier for both parties to make their opinions on certain issues known. This way, it would equally be a lot easier for both parties to work through any difficulty.
3. Learning to Forgive and Forget
As the saying goes “to err is human, to forgive, divine.” Thus, there’s need for couples to realize that offences are bound to come in their relationship.
And when they do come, the wronged partner must realize that forgiveness is the only way out. This is what would enable the relationship to survive.
At the same time, it’s important for the offender to recognize his or her wrongdoing and apologize accordingly. It always takes two to tango!
Frankly speaking, when it comes to this issue, whose fault it was isn’t the most important. Instead, it’s more important to be able to open up, apologize, and also to accept rendered apologies.
Thus, it’s very important to learn to say those magic words – “I’m sorry” – with all sincerity. These words are powerful and can melt any heart when said wholeheartedly.
Forgiveness is an important component that helps to close any potential distance between partners in a relationship.
4. Revitalize Your Sex Life
If you want to make sure that your partner stays hooked to you, then you have to make every effort to ensure that activities in the bedroom don’t become monotonous.
So, there are times you might need to give in to requests from your partner that centers on their fantasies.
Men need to be more considerate of their partner’s emotions when it comes to sex. Equally, women should understand that their men have a higher sex drive on an average.
Thus, a woman should always keep in mind that her man needs more of it than she naturally does. At the same time, she needs to ensure that she doesn’t starve her man of it.
5. Rebuild and Maintain the Attraction
After settling down into a mutually exclusive relationship, spouses generally start taking a lot of things for granted.
We should never forget that it was the physical attraction or something spectacular about our significant other that attracted them to us.
Thus, it’s very important that we do all we can to maintain that physical attractiveness.
6. Reconnect Emotionally with Your Partner
Every love relationship needs frequent doses of romance to keep the embers of love burning brightly.
Go back through memory lane and find something to use in rekindling that old spark. Start frequenting places that you used to visit earlier on in your relationship.
Equally, try and start doing lots of the things you did together when the initial attraction was sparked between both of you. For all it’s worth, just pretend to be those two people all over again.
[adrotate group=”1″]Let more touching, kissing, and caressing return into your daily life. A single passionate kiss can miraculously melt the ice of the strongest anger and sadness.
Those feelings you think are dead are still very much alive in your partner. They’ve only been pushed under the stress of everyday life. But it’s time to feel them once again.
7. Be Appreciative and Reciprocate Gestures
Everyone likes to be appreciated be it at work or at home. When little things are done and they go unappreciated, the tendency is to stop doing them altogether.
Thus, it’s important that we are observant and make an attempt to pay compliments to our spouse. It doesn’t matter if it’s for the “little insignificant” things they do for us.
Also, it’s counterproductive when one partner keeps giving and never receiving in any relationship. This can be with regards to things that are as simple as compliments that aren’t returned.
They could also be tangible things done for or given to one partner without any effort made to reciprocate the good gesture.
The fact is that there’s only so much that a spouse can give without receiving something back in return. Relationships are all about reciprocity – without reciprocity, they simply stagnate and die.
Giving of compliments should therefore be reciprocal and shouldn’t be taken for granted. Learn to be more polite and courteous with your partner.
It’s also good try to cultivate the habit of including “please” when making requests. Also, learn to say “thank you” for tasks completed or favor done for you – no matter how small they may be.
8. Seek Advice and Professional Counseling
Working through relationship problems alone often gets us nowhere. Thus, it would be advisable to talk to and seek assistance from trusted friends and family members.
Different people can give you different angles on a problem. They might also proffer solutions that might have worked for them or others they know were once in your position.
If these fail, expert and experienced advice can be gotten by enlisting the services of a professional relationship counselor. Such services may offer you the best possible reconciliation efforts in resolving your relationship problems.
9. A Breakup or Trial Separation
Absence, they say, makes the heart grow fonder. Getting your spouse back after a breakup or resuscitating an ailing relationship may at times require some form of separation for the partners.
This is often intended to help the partners heal and also to rediscover themselves. This is where the No Contact Rule becomes a very powerful relationship tool when properly implemented.
Most times, when all else fails, it might be necessary for spouses to completely cut off contact for a while. Couples that initiate this separation and live their independent lives for a while, can easily rediscover themselves.
Such separation can also help to rekindle attraction between partners. Before long, most partners come to realize the importance of the relationship to them.
Many couples that have embarked on “trial separations” have often restarted stronger and had more balanced relationships together again.
In conclusion…
Despite the various reasons listed above, the reasons why relationships fail and couples break up are endless. In fact, some of the reasons why relationships fail are simply uncalled for.
To save your relationship, you must understand that most of the problems noticed on the surface are often just symptoms. They are often representatives of more serious relationship and personal problems. Luckily, most of them can be fixed with the proper care and attention.
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