Relationships are complicated and sometimes they need repair. And while healthy relationships require commitment from both partners, sometimes there are things that you can do to help further the relationship along.
Here are five ways to save a relationship:
Work on yourself.
It’s easy to want to blame your partner for whatever challenges that relationship might be experiencing. However, the only person that you can control is yourself. If you are finding that your relationship might be falling apart, your best chances of saving it, are to work on the one thing that you can control and that is yourself. Examples include changing your eating habits, going to the gym, reading self-help books, and/or partaking in religious/spiritual worship. These suggestions are not meant to imply that you need to change for your partner, but rather serve as reminders that we are responsible for ourselves and when we make better choices, we typically reap better rewards.
Be honest with your partner.
This is hard, because most of us have pride and often prefer to protect it. Nonetheless, if you want to save your relationship, the best strategy is to swallow your pride and let your partner know how you feel about the relationship. Truth be told, relationships require a certain level of vulnerability to be
healthy. Sadly, many relationships fail, due to partners not willing to be honest with one another as they are often hesitant to speak their true feelings for one another for fear of being hurt or rejected by their partner. But the only true way to let your partner know how you feel is to tell them.
Compliment your partner.
When relationships get tense, sometimes, the last thing you want to do is find ways to make your partner feel good. After all, there’s a huge likelihood that you feel slighted and hurt yourself, so mustering up the energy to empower someone else is the last thing on your mind (especially when you think the other person is the cause for your pain). After all, when people are not in a good space, they don’t want to help other people feel better. But if you’re interested in saving your relationship, sacrificing for your partner might be the main thing that you need to do to get through this difficult time. Most likely, your partner is also feeling the same way that you are and also isn’t motivated to love you. Neither one of you are willing to be the bigger person to make the other feel good, and there’s no way that the two of you can come back together because you both remain stuck in a cycle of unhappiness. One of you must break that cycle if you are to reconnect, and if saving your relationship is important to you, you should be the one to initiate and take charge, irrespective of your partner’s resistance.
Encourage date nights with your partner.
There are so many things that you can do together, in this pandemic. Examples include watching Netflix movies, taking walks in the park, or eating at restaurants that have outdoor seating. Don’t allow your circumstances to limit what you think you can do. If you want to save your relationship, it can be done but you just have to be creative when identifying strategies for doing so.
Be willing to go to couples counseling.
Counseling often gets a bad reputation due to its stigma. However, statistics show that about 50% of couples that go to couples counseling, remain in their relationship four years after completion. That’s not a bad outcome, considering that a variety of other things could be responsible for the termination of a relationship that lies outside of the effectiveness of the couples counseling. In other words, if your relationship is on the verge of breaking, you have nothing to lose by trying to exhaust all of your resources to save it, and that includes counseling.
If you’d like to get started on saving your relationship today, please schedule your free, 15 minute consultation.
