According to the “Happy ever after” romantic myths and fairy tales one only has to find a special partner and everything will be happy ever after. Supported by novels, songs, movies, television & magazines, this “Happy ever after” meme became one of the most pervasive viruses of the mind in the 20th century. Although romantic love like this is mother nature’s way of attracting men and women to each other, love alone is not anywhere near enough for a life-long stable relationship. What else is required for a healthy long-term relationship?
Dr. Stephanie Sarkis suggests the following 7 keys to a healthy and happy relationship:
1. Mutual Respect
If you don’t have this – well, it’s going to be a tough road. This doesn’t mean you agree with everything your partner says or does. It does mean that you have admiration for each other, and steady undercurrent of love and trust throughout your relationship. You also have each other’s back. Abuse, whether it is physical, verbal, or emotional, defies mutual respect in every way, shape and form. You have to have mutual respect to have a healthy relationship.
2. Arguing, not fighting
I’ve never seen a healthy couple that doesn’t argue. They never fight, however. If a couple comes into my office and tells me they’ve never argued, something isn’t quite right. You can argue without fighting. Arguing is non-combative – you and your partner state your points of view without name-calling or raising your voice. Sometimes you agree to disagree – and that’s okay.
3. Agreement on Sex
You’re both okay with how often you have sex, how you have sex, where you have sex…and there’s mutual participation. Sex is not withheld as a punishment. And if you or your partner are not comfortable with any aspect of your sex life, you can talk about it openly, without criticism.
4. Agreement on Parenting
If the two of you don’t agree on a parenting style, you need to talk. You may have each grown up with different parenting styles – and we each tend to parent the same way we were parented. If you don’t have kids yet but are thinking about it, you must, must, must have this conversation with your partner.
5. Equality with Money
Money is one of the major causes of frustration in marriage and family relationships therefore the skill of financial harmony is essential for healthy long-term relationship. Understanding and respecting the value that each partner places on money as well as open communication are important for developing financial harmony. Even if one of you makes more money than the other, you both have an equal say about where your money goes. There are no “hidden accounts”, and you decide together before you make large purchases.
6. Common Goals and Values
Couples with very different interests can have healthy relationships – what counts is that they share common goals and values. Couples of different religions (or non-religion) and cultural backgrounds can have healthy relationships – what makes a healthy relationship is sharing core beliefs. You may both share the belief that giving back to your community is important. You may both share the belief that extended family members are welcome to live with you at any time. Values and beliefs differ for everyone.
Common goals include intangibles like raising happy and healthy children, and tangibles like saving up for a house. You can work together on setting one-year, five-year, even ten- and twenty-year goals. Working towards something together strengthens your bond.
7. Fun
“Sexiness wears thin after a while and beauty fades, but to be married to a man who makes you laugh every day, ah, now that’s a real treat.” – Joanne Woodward. Enough said. Make time to have fun. Life gets too serious without receiving regular doses of humour. 🙂
From Love Never Fades
Resources:
- 7 Keys to a Healthy and Happy Relationship
- Financial harmony: A key component of successful marriage relationship
- Good Relationship Tips from Life Optimizer
- Romantic Love is a Hoax
Related posts:
- Love and Marriage
- Love is caring for each other even when you’re angry
- Marriage is not a ritual or an end…
- Marriage is a relationship in which…
- Forbidden Books: Married Love or Love in Marriage
THE END
Otrazhenie 
Great article! 🙂
Thanks, Elizabeth. Glad that you liked it 🙂
Thanks for sharing…I think sometimes people think it has to be a lot of work in order to succeed in marriage, but this article proves that partnership is as easy as a choice most of the time and just takes a little less self. Great Article.
Totally agree with you on that. I think it is as hard as we make it. 🙂
Loved it!!!!!!!!!
Very glad to hear that 🙂
Excellent piece and I am with you totally! Thanks for sharing.
Glad that you liked this post 🙂
This is an excellent article. I would add that you must know yourself very well and know what you want and need in order to find the right mate that you can mature and grow old with..
Very good point. Totally agree with you on that 🙂
[…] The most romantic love story…. […]
Love it, hope to meet someone I can grow old with…… ☺
I’m sure you will 🙂
Very wise words! I think sometimes the hardest thing is being honest with yourself when you know some of these fundamentals aren’t right; for fear of being alone, we pretend these things can be overlooked.
Very good point. Totally agree with you on that.
[…] The most romantic love story… […]
what you are writing id absolutely true
but can I ask you something
are you happy with your marriage
please dont answers but just soul searching
because basically everybody puts up a brave face
and within they are disturbed
I know what you mean when talking about a ‘brave’ face, Ajay. Unfortunately, ‘brave face’ does not help to restore the harmony in the family. No matter what a ‘brave face’ we are putting for ‘outsiders’, it is impossible to hide any discontent or resentment from the ‘insiders’, particularly our children. They do feel everything.
Yes, we did have our ‘battles’ and we did go through all the stages outlined in my post “The course of true love never did run smooth” at https://otrazhenie.wordpress.com/2013/04/11/the-course-of-true-love-never-did-run-smooth/ There were points in our relationship when we started considering separation, however we managed somehow to pull through and find contentment. It was not easy, but I’m pleased we did as a lot of couples in our social circle did not get through stage 2 – disillusionment.
Looking back however I wish someone told me about relationship stages and those 7 keys to a healthy and happy relationship before I got into a relationship. That would make our relationship so much smoother and easier for us. Unfortunately, all information I was getting at that time turned out to be very unhelpful or even harmful ‘myths’. I was thinking of highlighting some of those myths in my next post.
thank you so much for you absolutely honest comments
I confirm that you are really a brave indeed not to say but I mean it, nice to be friends with you, god sent you to me.
I am glad you are my friend thank you for being so
I love you my friend toast to our friend ship
I think you are my type to a considerable extent
Thanks for your kind words, Ajay. Though not sure what ‘type’ is as I always struggle to put people into ‘types’ or any other kind of groupings. We are all so different 🙂
Glad that we met in a blogosphere and enjoy reading your wise comments. Your thoughtful comments inspire me to keep blogging.
thank you
you brave heart
i love people who take challenges headon
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