May 27 | Improve the communication in your relationship with these tips!💬

May 27, 2022

Our hearts ache for the unfathomable pain the families and entire Uvalde, TX community are feeling. Events such as this can often leave us speechless, uncertain and in need of hope. We encourage you to have conversations of connection and provide a hand of compassion through the most challenging of times.

tips & tricks for growth

you can improve bad communication in your marriage

Every couple experiences little instances of communication breakdown. It just happens.

Of course, the little things can gradually chip away at your connectedness in your marriage. Small drops of water from a leaky pipe over time lead to big problems.

Minor bad communication habits are like that. Not that big of a thing in the moment, but given time… you get the picture.

So with that in mind, we’re sharing four common communication habit scenarios every couple experiences. The good news is, you can fix or improve bad communication with a little intention!

SEE SCENARIOS & THEIR SOLUTION

how to build empathy in marriage

Have you ever whipped up your favorite batch of homemade cookies to find out in the first bite that you left out that one key ingredient that makes all the difference? Empathy is that key ingredient to a great recipe for a healthy marriage that you don’t want to forget.

A large body of research tells us the practice of empathy is essential to a thriving, happy, healthy marriage. However, many people reduce the idea of empathy to it being just “touchy-feely” or something that some people are born having, but others not so much.

Here are some steps for couples to take to build empathy:

🧡 Listen.

🧡 Validate.

🧡 Share.

🧡 Act.

🧡 Practice vulnerability.

Empathy is an all-important ingredient for a healthy marriage, but building it takes time.

what we’re lovin’

This week’s picks come from John Daum, husband of 28 years to his wife Monica, a Dad of 5, and a Content Creator here at First Things first. Take a peek at his recommendations for this week because they are just THAT GOOD. Check ’em out 👀:

📔 We hear a lot about having individual and couple goals, so you stay on the grow. We don’t hear many workable strategies to set goals and actually achieve them. Enter James Clear’s Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way To Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones! It’s been on Amazon’s best-seller list for 167 weeks and has 4.8 out of 5 stars with almost 75,000 reviews. I’ve been the stereotypical goal-setter who experiences change for a few weeks, then back to business as usual. It’s so frustrating! Atomic Habits explains why many people never get beyond wishful thinking and directs the reader to a better approach to achieving lasting change. Pick up the helpful workbook or workbook/journaland get growing!

💝 Congratulations! You are excitedly getting ready for the Big Day! Memorialize the big days in your relationship with the Memorable Dates Personalized Wooden Shiplap Sign from the Personalization Mall. You can personalize the title (Adam & Kara, The Smiths, etc.) and three dates of your most memorable moments (We First Met, We Got Engaged, We Got Married, etc.). This is home decor with a powerful purpose. There is real power in remembering where you’ve been as a couple. You are building the shared foundation for your shared future!

📣 If you aren’t getting a bunch of marriage “advice” already, you will be as your big day draws near. How do you know which advice is legit and trustworthy? You’re gonna find that sometimes the people offering the most marriage “advice” don’t have very healthy marriages themselves. (It’s a sad reality. 😢) Get your marriage off to a great start by spending some time with real marriage pros! BESTLIFE has a must-read article where they give The 50 Best Marriage Tips From Couples Who’ve Been Married for 50 Years. There’s no such thing as a “perfect marriage,” but these couples are marriage veterans who have been there and done that. And have the relationship secrets that have stood the test of time. Go meet them and soak it up!