Tag: memories

When you’ve been married for years, it can be challenging to keep the chemistry or romance alive. By using the following tips below, you and your spouse can apply these quick and easy tips to help maintain and keep your marriage alive and strong!

1. Regularly Rehearse Magic Moments

Change the story that you tell yourself about your marriage by focusing on the great times you’ve shared together and reminisce on them (over and over again), and if you have to during the not-so-magic moments. When you habitually remind yourself of the good in your relationship, you create a new story in your mind that affirms your marriage and establishes a healthy foundation to build more happy memories upon.

From the time my two daughters were born, I have loved showing them the world, keeping them busy and engaging them in activities. They didn’t sleep until noon; they were helpful around the house and always had friends and many things to do.

This was never more true than when we went on vacation. While I would have enjoyed just finding a nice beach to sleep on all day, they wanted to do things. So we traveled to cities, starting our action packed 14-hour days and ending them with a happy state of pure exhaustion.

The argument has reached its boiling point. It’s degenerated into an outright fight, and here you both are launching, "this is just like that time you" grenades at each other—the original reason for the argument is hardly relevant at this point. It’s "gotcha" time, and knowing each other as well as you do, you’re hitting those "gotcha" buttons with unerring, hurtful precision.

No surprise that nothing gets resolved. Bad feelings abound. Another layer of resentment is built up between the two of you. Your closeness erodes.

After you get married, it’s easy to become so busy with the details of everyday life that you fail to consciously appreciate the people who helped get you to where you are today. If you’re like most people, your parents are foremost on that list. They taught you important lessons, provided for you, sacrificed for you, and made many unforgettable memories with you. So on Father’s Day, be sure to hit the "pause" button on your own family’s activities and pay special attention to the man who raised you.

Many mind and body teachers will urge you to live in the moment: "The past is over and done with. The present is a present." Of course, it is great to fully experience the present and not dilute it with invasive thoughts of the past or even future worries—the way animals live moment to moment. However, humans are far more complex; and when someone tells you not to think about something or do something, that’s all you think about. Ask any unsuccessful dieter!

You don’t often see joy used in the same sentence as death. But when my husband Bruce was diagnosed with an aggressive stage 4 cancer, my family had to confront his impending death and in the process we found ways to surround him with friends, children, grandchildren, laughter, memories, love, and yes, joy.

When Bruce decided to stop treatment, he transitioned from being someone who was sick and fighting for time to someone who was dying and fighting for the things that made him happy: family, traveling, chocolate, wine. By accepting he was dying we were all able to focus our energies on achieving the peaceful end-of-life experience that he wanted.

Recently, intimacy and sex have been talked about more than ever before. Sex has become less of a taboo topic and more mainstream, so it should come as no surprise that conversations about intimacy only grow come February. This Valentine’s Day, in particular, is expected to be one of the most intimate because of a perfect storm brewing—the holiday falls on a Saturday, over a long holiday weekend and coincides with a much-anticipated erotic movie launch. In fact, according to a recent survey conducted on behalf of K-Y, 46 percent of those who plan on being intimate on Valentine’s Day attributed these specific factors as contributors to their plans for intimacy on Valentine’s Day.