Here are a few ideas which may get you thinking of how you can do “small things often” and turn towards your partner to show them you are loving them intentionally. In turn these small things will add to your emotional bank account, deposits that create a stronger bond in your partnership.

Many people make resolutions around their own lifestyle changes that will improve their quality of life. While we tend to make unobtainable goals, many people still have a go, and some succeed. Researchers call this feeling the “fresh start effect”. They have found that we tend to motivate ourselves into good habits by using a new beginning (like the start of the week, month, year, season, etc.) as a marker to put past behavior behind us and focus on being better. It brings opportunity to reflect on the previous year and anticipate what you want the New Year to look like.

In 2010 David Olson, Amy Olson-Sigg & Peter Larson carried out a study in the US using >50 thousand premarital couples (both partners), whose marriages were about to create a stepfamily. The survey identified the top twelve Remarriage Stumbling Blocks.

In a study in the US using >50 thousand premarital couples (both partners), whose marriages were about to create a stepfamily, an important discovery was the role in conflict resolution.

In 2010 David Olson, Amy Olson-Sigg & Peter Larson carried out a study in the US using >50 thousand premarital couples (both partners), whose marriages were about to create a stepfamily. The survey identified the Five Keys to Intimacy, which is made up of the top five strengths that clearly distinguish great relationships from unsatisfying ones, along with the Top Ten Strengths of Happy versus Unhappy Couples Creating Step Families.

When you put effort towards something, it can be helpful to foresee outcomes and articulating outcomes now and being mindful of them along the way will help guide you and your partner to find success through this journey.

When you put effort towards something, it can be helpful to foresee outcomes. Whether you work through your PREPARE/ENRICH assessment results in its entirety or section by section, articulating outcomes now and being mindful of them along the way will help guide you and your partner to find success through this journey.

Who doesn’t love to go on holidays? In the summer, many flock up north. The warm sunshine, refreshing beach swims, and lovely breeze are unbeatable – especially when you realize winter is only a few months away.

An Australian study has shown that there is a strong link between experience of financial hardship and personal psychological distress (Creed, P.A., & Miller, J. Psychological distress in the labour market: Shame or deprivation? Australian Journal of Psychology, 2006, 58, 31-39). One point made by the authors is that financial distress reduces a person’s capacity to plan and interferes with planning for a meaningful future. It is this that primarily reduces psychological wellbeing.

Money is a powerful word that conjures up a number of emotions, among them lust, envy, fear, anger, hope, scorn and disgust. Little wonder then, that the most common source of disagreement in families in Australia is money. According to a 2012 study (Hawkins et al) 40% claimed that the way their spouse handles money, was the reason for divorce (third to growing apart 55% and not able to talk together 53%.