When you first fell in love, your relationship was the centerpiece of your life. It was your primary source of happiness and joy. While you devoted energy to other activities, you stored up energy to spend time with your new love. Finding mutual activities was not a problem, just spending time together was the primary goal.
As time progressed, the relationship solidified into a more secure, committed relationship in which each of you won the heart of your partner. Then your life expanded as your attention became divided with your careers, hobbies/interests, new electronic devices, friendships, children and a seemingly endless to-do list.
Now the relationship is secure and can weather some neglect because you each remain firmly committed to the marriage. Your partner understands the need for longer work hours and then time to unwind in front of your electronic device. Your partner understands your focus on the children and the need you feel to supply them with an endless list of activities to enrich their lives.
But what happens to your relationship as you focus much of your energy in other directions? Much like a plant that is not watered and fertilized, the relationship does not die immediately but withers over time. What began as a close physical and emotional connection becomes a family factory. The factory produces excellent careers, outside connections and children who receive the best in enriching activities, but the factory lacks the warmth of connection.
Many couples wake up to a marriage in which they have taken their relationship for granted, only to find distance and dissatisfaction. Now is the time to either prevent that from happening to your relationship or to take your relationship back from everything that has kept you from maintaining the connection you once thought would last forever.
Early on it seemed easy to find time to be together, but now it is a challenge. You must make time for your relationship. You must make time on a daily basis for connection. Connection means taking time to talk in a manner that says, "You matter to me." Set up "mini dates" in which you center the activity on your relationship, even as you only have a few minutes and are confined to the home.
Now the relationship is secure and can weather some neglect because you each remain firmly committed to the marriage. Your partner understands the need for longer work hours and then time to unwind in front of your electronic device. Your partner understands your focus on the children and the need you feel to supply them with an endless list of activities to enrich their lives.
But what happens to your relationship as you focus much of your energy in other directions? Much like a plant that is not watered and fertilized, the relationship does not die immediately but withers over time. What began as a close physical and emotional connection becomes a family factory. The factory produces excellent careers, outside connections and children who receive the best in enriching activities, but the factory lacks the warmth of connection.
Many couples wake up to a marriage in which they have taken their relationship for granted, only to find distance and dissatisfaction. Now is the time to either prevent that from happening to your relationship or to take your relationship back from everything that has kept you from maintaining the connection you once thought would last forever.
Early on it seemed easy to find time to be together, but now it is a challenge. You must make time for your relationship. You must make time on a daily basis for connection. Connection means taking time to talk in a manner that says, "You matter to me." Set up "mini dates" in which you center the activity on your relationship, even as you only have a few minutes and are confined to the home.
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