When you Assume Love and try to explain your husband’s or wife’s behavior as a loving act, do you draw a blank? We continue our series today with more tips for finding that explanation. On Sunday, we looked at Love Languages. On Monday, we looked at genetic differences in our ability to read emotional cues. Today, we look at the calendar. Are there days in your year with an emotional...
When you Assume Love and try to explain it as a loving act, do you sometimes draw a blank? This series offers some guides you can use. Yesterday, we looked at using Gary Chapman’s 5 Love Languages. Today, we will apply some new research on emotions. Let’s imagine you just shared some news with your spouse, but the reaction is hardly the one you expected. It’s as if he or she...
Are you one of those people who can’t make the shift from all the awful explanations for what your spouse did? When you Assume Love and try to explain it as a loving act, do you draw a blank? If so, the series of posts that begins today may help. One of the best guides is Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages. You can run down the list and see if what happened fits into any of them. I...
Know that joke about looking under the street lamp for keys you dropped elsewhere, because the light is better? One of the great things I learned by helping with the research into character strengths and well-being is where else to look when I am not seeing my husband’s strengths. Let me share a few with you. Upset with shortcomings in modesty or authenticity? Look for how much optimism...
A new study of commitment in the first 11 years of marriage confirms something I have long believed. “The psychologists recommend against ‘bank-account relationships,’ in which you keep score of how often you get your way and how often you compromise.” They looked at the results of two types of commitment at the start of these 172 marriages: “I really like this...
