Successful Relationships Reading Corner

In this week’s blog, we wrote about why relationships need attention to be successful. These articles say the same thing in various ways: anecdotally, analytically and with humor.

Attention Is the Most Basic Form of Love “One of the most common relationship concerns we have found in our Marriage Checkup study is that partners stop paying attention to each other in the struggle to accomplish the myriad demands of the day. We are all, so many of us, so monstrously busy on a day-to-day basis that we practically tremble under the strain of it all…. And then, finally, sometimes, through the fog, we catch a glimmer. My wife. My husband. Our marriage.”

Want to Improve Your Relationship? Start Paying More Attention to Bids “I realized how much I’d asked him to change for our relationship, without being willing to put in the work myself. And I knew this was the work. The paying attention, the asking questions, the listening. I knew this because of innovative research conducted by John Gottman… What separates the relationship masters from the relationship disasters?”

Is Your Relationship a Priority? “I’ve been thinking lately about what commonly brings couples into my office. It’s not only infidelity, but it is cheating. It’s not just escalating conflict, though it does become escalated. What many of the couples I see have in common is that they fail to do one crucial thing that erodes their bond of connection over time and causes their partner to lose confidence in them. They don’t make the relationship a priority.”

Tell your friends!