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Health & Fitness

How Couples Can Break Through A Rough Patch

Couples who start to think about separation or divorce are in a place of high conflict or high dissatisfaction. Sometimes it’s very easy to find the main culprit in the relationship, especially when there is verbal or physical abuse. But often it’s not so clear cut.

Lots of couples aren’t happy in their marriage, but find themselves unable to end the relationship. There may be an element of co-dependency, maybe there’s children involved, and most importantly, there is still a remnant of good will to try and improve things.

Most of us enter a relationship pondering what we can get out of it and how it fits our needs. When we first meet our partner, there is always the deliberation of how being with them can improve our lives. If you’re an introvert and your spouse is an extrovert, there was at one point probably the idea that both partners can gain from the other person’s personality style. 

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It’s similar in conflict situations. We tend to get hung up on questions like “what did I not get from the other?” “How are my needs not met?” “He or she always does this and I amalways at the losing end of the battle.”

What we often neglect is the question of “how can I contribute to the well being of our relationship at this point of impasse?” When two differing opinions bump up against each other, it’s very difficult to not just have one’s own point of view in mind, but to simply ponder “what does the relationship need from me right now?”

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We tend to forget that it’s not one against the other, but that our job is to find a thirdsolution that both partners can live with. As soon as we can step out of the unproductive cycle of you against me and take a caring look at the good things you and your partner have built together, there is a way out of the impasse.

If disagreement after disagreement has piled up over the years and they all remain unsolved, it may appear easier to just call it quits. But that too is hard to do. So we keep drifting along in what feels like a dead end relationship.

We need to take responsibility for our own failings and to try and improve whatever went wrong, even if it feels daunting. Many times one partner – often women – feels like they have tried everything before, and they are tired of having to fix what’s broken.

Relationships require effort. And having to put in effort is never over. It’s a lifetime task.

 

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