💪 Make your relationship stronger by prepping in these 5 ways.

❤️ Your future spouse can develop empathy. Here’s how to help.

⚠️ Considering breaking off your engagement? Read this.

👥 Is it okay to have opposite-sex friends when you’re married?

💍 Before you wed, here are 10 must-know things about marriage.

feeling compassion fatigue? you’re not alone!

Have you ever felt like you’ve cared so much you just can’t anymore? Like you’re exhausted from taking care of others? Even if you’ve never heard of compassion fatigue, you may be familiar with what it is. Maybe more familiar than you’d like.

Compassion fatigue is rooted in caring for others.

It would be easy to confuse compassion fatigue with burnout, but they’re a bit different.

Compassion fatigue occurs because of the emotional strain of supporting those who are suffering from something traumatic. It is rooted in caring for others. It’s not just a workplace thing, but it can co-exist with burnout, especially for those in service professions.

Look for these symptoms:

• Physical and psychological exhaustion

• Feeling helpless, hopeless, or powerless

• A decreased sense of personal and professional accomplishment

• A change in your worldview or spirituality

• Drastic shifts in mood

• A dramatic withdrawal from social connections

Since compassion fatigue affects your mental and physical health, it also impacts the quality of your relationships with your partner, children, friends, and co-workers.

in-laws: they’re not always likable

They’re like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re gonna get. They might blow through boundaries. Your in-laws might meddle in your marriage. You might even be having a hard time living with your in-laws. Possibly, they’re totally toxic. This isn’t about any of those things.

Sometimes, your in-laws are just difficult to get along with. But you want to try to have a good relationship with them.

After a few years of marriage (or less), you soon realize saying “yes” to forever with your spouse really did mean saying “yes” to forever with their family, as well as uncomfortable holidays and long weekends filled with awkward situations and tension for as long as you both shall live.

You want to like your in-laws. You’ve tried to like them. But you don’t.

The truth is, you may never like your in-laws. And that’s totally fine. You don’t have to. It’s just important to keep the drama and the tension to a minimum as much as you can for the sake of your spouse and your children (if you have them). Even though you formed a new family when you were married, your in-laws are the reason you have your spouse and a new family to begin with.

If nothing else, try to respect them for giving you your spouse.