5 Tips for Strengthening Your Marriage in 2021
At the beginning of every year, many of us make New Year’s resolutions to stop eating junk food, lose weight, quit smoking, or save money. These resolutions often fail, not due to a lack of willpower, but because they focus on kicking bad habits rather than developing positive ones.
If you ask someone what brings them the most joy in their life, one of the most popular answers you’ll get is their relationships. One of the most important relationships in your life is your marriage. In 2020, many people’s relationships took a back seat to more pressing concerns. This year, make strengthening your marriage a priority. Here are 5 tips to get started.
Upgrade Your Mattress
You might be wondering what your mattress has to do with your marriage. It may come as a surprise, but a high-quality mattress actually impacts your relationships by improving the quality of your sleep.
A good night’s sleep will improve both your immunity and your mood, ensuring you start each day feeling refreshed and energized enough to tackle the areas in your life that need your attention- including your marriage.
Invest in a custom mattress that fits both you and your partner’s nighttime needs.
Make Time for Fun
When life gets busy and stressful, it’s easy to forget to enjoy the simple things in life. You and your partner may fall into the monotony of daily routines and schedules, leaving little time to enjoy a fun activity and laugh together.
Sit down together and make a point of scheduling in some time to have fun together each week. This might be as simple as planning a board game or movie night or going for a hike every weekend.
Having fun together reminds you both that you’re not just in this marriage to pay the bills, but to enjoy spending time in your spouse’s company.
Eat Dinner Together
A British study found that sharing meals with others is an important social bonding mechanism. Those who cooked and enjoyed meals with friends and family reported greater feelings of trust, happiness, and life satisfaction.
Though it may be difficult to make time to cook and eat dinner together, especially if you and your partner are on different schedules or diets, this is one of the simplest ways to connect.
Find Meaningful Ways to Serve
Taking the time to show your partner how much you value them doesn’t have to involve grand gestures, lots of money, or even much energy. Fill out the love languages quiz with your partner to find out how you each express and interpret love.
Use the results from this quiz to show your love in the way they’ll most appreciate. This might mean folding the laundry for a spouse who finds acts of service most meaningful, or going on a walk together if their love language is quality time.
Compliment Your Spouse Each Day
Giving compliments is an art form, and doing it correctly benefits not just the person you’re complimenting, but yourself, too. Rather than looking at giving compliments as telling your partner what they want to hear, think about it as an opportunity for you to remind yourself why you value your spouse.
What do you appreciate and admire about them? Do you enjoy being with them? Taking a little time each day to reflect on why you’re in this marriage will allow you both to value the relationship on a deeper and more conscious level.
