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Listen, Linda!!! Active Listening In Marriage
Did you ever watch the viral YouTube video called Listen, Linda? (Watch video) It’s pretty funny, but also good food for thought. Really, what we all want is to be heard and understood, which is part of being loved. But this is sometimes easier said than done. Easily Distracted & Uninclined: My Default Setting KEN: I’m easily distracted and not inclined to listen to things that don’t interest me. This naturally creates a challenge for good communication in our marriage. JANINE: I like quiet time at home. When I’m chipping away at my to-do list, or even when I’m doing dishes, I like to spend time with my own thoughts…
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The BEST of Your Life
John: “Today is the first day of the BEST of your life.” I retired last Friday after 41 years of working in the IT field. That quote was on the card I received from the team I led. While it is certainly appropriate for retirement, it also rings true in our everyday life. Every day, we can choose to live our best life, regardless of the changes, circumstances, and chaos around us.
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Love Letters from Bellevue
Many of our readers have attended a Worldwide Marriage Encounter Experience and sought to bring the tools home and use them every day. Little did we know, a couple of our readers, Joe and Helen have truly set the bar for making love letters a daily part of their lives. Married for more than 71 years now, we at The Couples Post are blessed and humbled to have heard their story and have this chance to share it with you in this touching video from the Eric’s Heroes feature on KOMO News out of Seattle. We invite you to listen to their story and hope you’re as inspired as we…
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Are We Scrolling by Our Relationship? (Repost)
The convenience our smartphones provide has come at a cost that we all feel. We see it when we’re out in public, with people staring at their phones rather than paying attention to their loved ones. One way of recognizing the problem with this comes from Drs. John and Julie Gottman – identifying how we make “bids” for attention from our partners. Paying attention to our cell phones makes it likely we’ll miss those bids and end up hurting each other.
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Taking The Back Roads
Feeling disconnected from your spouse? Just like exploring scenic back roads, carve out "carefree timelessness" for deep conversations. Learn how simple coffee talks can unlock a universe of understanding and strengthen your marriage.
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You Say Goodbye and I Say Hello
You say good-bye and I say hello (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rblYSKz_VnI) is more than just an old Beatles song. Saying good-bye is rarely easy. Whether it be to a loved one in death, a move to a new city, a child going off to college, or changing jobs, good-byes are almost always painful. How we move through our good-byes can bring us closer to each other or pull us apart.
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Are We Scrolling by Our Relationship?
The convenience our smartphones provide has come at a cost that we all feel. We see it when we’re out in public, with people staring at their phones rather than paying attention to their loved ones. One way of recognizing the problem with this comes from Drs. John and Julie Gottman – identifying how we make “bids” for attention from our partners. Paying attention to our cell phones makes it likely we’ll miss those bids and end up hurting each other.
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Opposing Perspectives
We can both be in the same room looking at the same situation but have remarkably different responses to whatever is going on. Our perspective can be clouded by many things. You may think you’ve been kind and loving to your spouse – but later find out that they’re feeling lonely or unloved. Your spouse may think they were respectful to you, but you think they were being patronizing or condescending. When it comes down to “he said, she said”, it’s possible that neither of you is seeing everything clearly. How ‘Bout Some Netflix? One of the classic moments from our marriage that demonstrates this was one evening when Ken thought he’d…
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Be Ready
Chris: When I was a kid, I played whatever season’s sport was up. One year during baseball season, the announcer realized that his typical way of calling batting order, player’s last name followed by ‘at bat’, ‘on deck’, or ‘in the hole’, would not be appropriate given my last name (Seaman). In the hole was quickly modified to ‘be ready’. While I may have been momentarily embarrassed by this obvious (and a little funny) change, the idea of ‘being ready’ stuck with me and has been a mantra of sorts for me throughout my life. The first day I met Michelle, I told her I was going to marry her someday. While she…
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Is There Technoference in Your Marriage?
Recently, we read an article and learned a new word – “Technoference.” This word “refers to the interruptions in interpersonal communication caused by attention paid to personal tech devices.” Although we hadn’t heard of this word, we knew instantly that ‘Technoference’ is an issue in our marriage. But Technology Is Useful… Most of the time, using our phones is not a big deal… technology is very useful. We love getting videos or pictures from our family. We couldn’t do our jobs, keep in touch with others, or find our way around a new city without our phones. However… Every once in a while, the phone in front of our spouse’s…
