Important Ingredient for Happy Relationships in this Holiday Season

Christmas time with all the love, warmth, celebration, good food, generosity, etc. can be a great time for building better relationships. Using this as an opportunity for positive togetherness apparently can even improve your marriage. Couples who enthusiastically share positive experiences find their love for each other growing.

According to an article by Suzann Pileggi in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue “The Happy Couple”:

In the past few years positive psychology researchers have discovered that thriving couples accentuate the positive in life…they…celebrate the happy moments and work to build more bright points into their lives.

It turns out that how couples handle good news may matter even more to their relationship than their ability to support each other under difficult circumstances. Happy pairs also individually experience a higher ratio of upbeat emotions to negative ones than people in unsuccessful liaisons to…Researchers found that when a partner proffered a supportive response to cheerful statements, the ‘responded to’ ratings were higher than they were after a sympathetic response to negative news. Suggesting that how partners reply to good news may be a stronger determinant of relationship health than their reaction to unfortunate incidents.

In addition, couples who answered good news in an active constructive way scored higher on almost every type of measure of relationship satisfaction than those who responded in a passive or destructive way…shows that a person cares about why the good news is important…conveying that you ‘get’ your partner.”

Expressing gratitude on a regular basis is also vital and may act as a booster shot for romantic relationships.

In light of this, what can be done to take full advantage of this opportune time for improving and securing our closest relationships?

• Keep everything positive! Be the one to bring the happiness to the party…the dinner table…the relationship!
• Build in extra times of having fun together.
• Have beautiful Christmas music playing softly in the background…invite your partner to dance!
• Express your gratitude at least three times a day to and for your partner (and children!) and thank them for all they do fo you.
• Establish your own rituals and traditions.
• Laugh while messing up…laugh while cleaning up together!
• And …apparently very important…share the other’s joy!

Have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year together. May we all remember our most important relationship of all …our partnership with our beautiful Lord …and share our joy with Him at least three times a day!