Nurturing Love and RespectRelationships can bring happiness into our lives and they can also bring pain and sorrow. The key is knowing what to specifically do to cultivate more of the happiness into your relationship instead of the heartache.
Having been married for eight years I have experienced both. As I have tried to cultivate more of the love and happiness into our relationship (through trial and error) I have found that there are some things that I can specifically do to that end. Here are some tips on cultivating a healthy relationship straight from my journal.
1. Your partner may tend to exagerate and make things sound worse than they are to be heard. They are in pain. They are communicating out of pain. Don't take it personally. They have something very valid to share and we should listen to their feelings and needs but not their evaluations of us or the marriage. If we listen to their evaluations we will get depressed or angry.
2. When your partner or spouse judges, blames and uses power-over strategies it is important to remember we cannot change them or control their behavior. It is out of our control. So, let go of trying to control them and don't take what they say or do personally. Immediately mourn the behavior and give yourself some time and space to do this and connect with your feelings and needs. By connecting with your feelings and needs you are validating them and giving yourself empathy. Then when both of you are calm you can communicate them by using 'I" messages (example: When I hear voices raised I feel frustrated because I want peace and respect for our family). Don't say the word "you" when sharing "I" messages. If your partner is still in pain you will want to help them communicate their feelings and needs first and then share yours. Once this is done you can brainstorm to come to a reasonable solution that meets both of your needs.
3. Focus on changing yourself and not on changing your partner or their character faults. You can't change your partner so trying to change them is wasted energy. Focus on what you can change - yourself. When your partner does something that stimulates pain in you it is your responsibility to keep it together and respond with love and respect. Work on your responses and behavior. Good questions to ask yourself are ... "What can I do to feel better? What can I do to bring more peace to the relationship? What can I do to manage my anger better? What can I do to respond better when I am criticized?"
4. Don't compare yourself or your partner with others. This will only make you miserable. Accept that you did not marry the other person and did marry your spouse (if you are married). Accept your partner for who he or she is and make a commitment to love them regardless. Even if your relationship or marriage is 10 times harder than other marriages, if you stick it out and do the work needed you will be 10 times better for it. You will grow immensely as a result and you be will able to help others as a result. (If you are in an abusive relationship or there is infidelity going on you may want to consider getting professional help or separation).
5. Never imply wrongness or blame each other. This is hard to do but a key to a grace-based relationship. Make an agreement to never blame or imply wrongness of the other and if you do that you will quickly accept responsibility for it. If you make a statement that implies wrongness you can be accountable by saying this: "I am deeply saddened that I said something that implied wrongness because this is not what I want to do. I really want to express my feelings and needs and not judgements and blame."
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2 comments:
I respectfully disagree with your post.
If your partner tends to exaggerate and make things worse than they are, judges, blames and uses power-over strategies - focusing on changing yourself and not your partner is NOT the right thing to do.
"Even if your relationship or marriage is 10 times harder than other marriages, if you stick it out and do the work needed you will be 10 times better for it." - I think that is a pretty strong statement to make. Are you sure? Can you actually give that advice to other people without knowing their particular circumstances? I don't think so.
I agree nurturing love and respect is important, but it has to come from both sides, and I don't think spouses who judge, blame and power-struggle are showing either love or respect and are most likely emotionally abusive.
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Yelena - Thanks for your comment. I always welcome questions and different opinions because I think it allows me to go deeper into the subject and bring more clarity to the matter.
I have learned that we cannot change other people and that when we attempt to do this more tension and conflict occurs. Focusing on changing your partner leads to dissappointment and defensiveness on their part. It is a waste of energy. I have found that the only thing we have control over is ourselves (our response to things) and even this is hard to do. If someone yells at me or insults me I have the option to yell back or insult(by doing this I also am using power-over strategies and trying to control them and the situation with my words) or I have the option to not use power-over strategies. I can walk away and talk when things are calmer. I can not take the statements made of me personally and be free to pain. I can take deep breaths to stay calm and not become what I despise. Many times I have found that when I respect the other person their is a higher likelihood that I will get my needs met and that the other person will apologize or be more open to talk calmly later.
I hope that you are not proposing that people try to change their partner. I think this will lead to much misery.
In relationships there is a lot of mirroring that goes on. When one person does not respond back with power-over strategies and instead responds with respect and love the climate of the household will usually change for the positive. Having worked with over 600 clients who have reported back to me in regards to this I have found this to be true.
It is key to remember that most people demonstrate some power-over strategies in their relationship (yelling, criticism, judgment, sarcasm, silent treatment, etc. are all power-over strategies) at times. When these behaviors become the norm or a pattern they are considered abusive.
It is true that relationships thrive when both partners respect each other, but if one partner sometimes falls short it is good to know that we can still respect the other and that this will help the couple to restore harmony. Otherwise every time that one partner falls short we would give ourselves a license to lower ourselves to their level. No ... may it not be so. We are responsible for how we respond!
When it comes to a marriage being 10 times harder than another marriage, I do believe that if the couple sticks it out and does the work needed to make the relationship healthy they will be better for it. By "work needed" I mean seeking counseling, setting boundaries, being responsible for how they respond, etc. that lead to the relationship becoming healthy. If the relationship is abusive and stays abusive then that is another story. But the learning experience for the couple that does give their all in trying to restore the relationship is successful is immense and very helpful in helping other couples in the future.
If the relationship is abusive in nature then that is another story. Maybe you did not read number 4. I state that if there is abuse to consider separation or seeking professional help. But even in these cases it is important to remember that we cannot change the other person who is abusive and that we can only change how we respond. One change we can make is to set boundaries. For example one boundary could be to leave the relationship. This is what we can control. Many people try to change their partner and stay in an abusive relationship for many years hoping for a miracle that never comes because we cannot change others!
This is a long response but I wanted to respond to your concerns and bring more clarity on these matters.
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