Love and Respect Your Partner
When we are young, we are taught how to love by what we experience from our caregivers. We also learn how to love based on our experiences with friends and family. We receive love outside of ourselves and then we express our love to others by what feels good to us.
Do you think we love based on our experiences?
If you’ve been in a relationship, you know it comes with conflict. Conflict can arise because we are loving our spouse based on our own experiences versus understanding what love and respect is from their perspective. What would it take for you to understand what love and respect means to your spouse?
What comes first; love or respect?
That's an easy answer; both, but we need love and respect for ourselves first. If we don't know how to love and respect ourselves, how can we offer them to our spouse?
Love and respect looks and feels different for everyone so it's important to ask your spouse, "What does respecting you look like?" "What's your love language?"
How do you know if you aren’t loving and respecting your partner?
Physical and emotional distance starts to draw a wedge between the two of you.
Your spouse becomes a "yes man." What I mean by this is, your spouse loses themselves as an individual and becomes engulfed with your wants and needs. They start to neglect their own wants and needs and this can lead to resentment towards you.
You are arguing All. The. Time. You've heard the saying, "it takes two to argue." Honestly, it's too much energy to argue. Just kiss and make up already. Wink wink! 😉
They are simply not a priority. You put work first, your friends second and so on. When do make your spouse a priority? In my marriage, here are my priorities: God first, myself second, husband third, kids fourth, and work is last. I'll blog more about that another time.
You tell everybody your business. How do you expect things to get better when you keep breathing death over your marriage? Stop complaining and see a professional. Do you want to save your marriage or sabotage it?
3 ways to build love and respect for your partner:
Recover and rebuild your relationship by creating space to heal together ❤️ Seek out professional services to sift through the barriers.
Restore your romance by dating each other again. Take a trip or a weekend getaway. Better yet, schedule dates in your calendar to male each other a priority. Your new mantra is, "We are dating forever!"
Rewire your thoughts, feelings and behaviors towards your spouse. Take inventory of your thoughts and write them down. Tap into your feelings and acknowledge them. Observe your behavior towards your spouse. Rewire all three to create a more positive outcome that leans towards love and respect.
Cheers to Love and Respect…
#youbelonghere
- Tiffany
@InfiniteHealingLLC