One of the keys to more intimacy in your relationships and your life is to be open to the other people in your life. In Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, one of the seven habits is to “seek first to understand and then be understood.” We think this is a [...]

If we’re really honest, we all lie to ourselves at one time or another. Sometimes we lie to ourselves to not hurt someone we love and sometimes we lie to ourselves because if we really looked at our “truth,” it might require us to make some choices that we may not want to make.These lies [...]

In the USA, it’s the week of the 4th of July and that means independence day celebrations, complete with fireworks, cook-outs and get-togethers with friends and family. As we were thinking about the Independence Day holiday and what we were going to do to celebrate, we couldn’t help but think about independence as it relates [...]

Life, marriage, and relationships and can be so incredible, and yet at times, can be so frustrating. Sometimes we’re faced with situations that we’re really not so sure how to handle but we do the best we can.We face all kinds of temptations in our lives and our relationships on a daily basis that, if [...]

Here’s a crazy idea about what to do when you’re at a communication, trust or jealousy impasse with your spouse… We’ve talked about this idea a lot to our relationship breakthrough coaching clients and it’s made a big difference for them in their lives and relationships once they really “got it.” Here’s the marriage advice [...]

If there’s one piece of relationship advice that we can offer that comes up missing in most marriages as time goes on, it’s passion. We’re not just talking about what happens in the bedroom (although that’s important). It’s also what happens every moment of every day between the two of you. Although your life might [...]

How do you keep a relationship loving, intimate, alive and growing over the long haul? We are constantly on the look out for ideas to keep the spark alive in our relationship and we love passing them on to you. Here are some ideas from three people who agreed to share how they keep their [...]

Assuming you’re in a marriage with someone you love and really want to be with…. AND…If you knew it would end in 24 hours, and you wanted to make those 24 hours as special as possible… What would you do or what would you do differently to make that happen? We recognize that this is [...]

A moving column was recently printed in our city’s newspaper. The story was about an elderly man whose wife passed on 6 months ago.The man, a prominent minister, was grappling with not only grief from losing his wife of 57 years, but also regret because he felt so busy and caught up with other things [...]

Some people believe that change takes a very long time to happen. These people believe that if you want to improve something or change something in your life that you peck away at it and eventually you’ll have want you want. It’s been our experience that change happens in two ways: 1. Yes, it can [...]

Here’s another great question from our recent survey that seemed to be on the minds of many when we brought up the topic of passion. “How can we work with the changing nature of passion as it transforms over the course of a relationship, and with different events occurring, such as career and lifestyle changes, [...]

There could be a lot of reasons for unhappiness and dissatisfaction in long-term intimate relationships–but from our research, here’s something that might surprise you… One of the biggest is boredom. When one or both people in the relationship feel bored with each other over a long period of time, it’s very easy to get blindsided [...]

Jan has been feeling worried lately. The past 6 months have been fabulous in terms of her career. She has been taking more risks at work and experiencing success. Her boss has given her a promotion and raise and she’s loving this new position. The outlook for her rise within the company she works for [...]

“What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” is an often quoted line from the famous philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche that unfortunately also describes a way that many people live their lives. While we know that sometimes you get into situations you’d rather not be in… …And it may be helpful to look at these situations and [...]

How many of us were raised with a belief in “Murphy’s Law?” This means if something can go wrong in a situation, chances are, it will. This belief is often (perhaps unconsciously) applied when it comes to parenting. Whether it’s preparing a kindergartner for the “inevitable” dropping of the lunch tray at school or the [...]