According to Leslie Becker-Phelps, “All marriages have their ups and downs; all people have their strengths and weaknesses; and all couples have areas of disagreement. But those who remain happy manage to view their relationship through a positive lens. They see the parts of their marriage that are most positive as the parts that are essential. However, most importantly, they are flexible about this. As the positive and negative aspects of their relationship shift with time, so does their judgment about what is essential — but they must always focus on the most positive aspects in the moment.
Along with this positive perspective, couples view their spouse’s problems, imperfections, or annoying habits in a way that neutralizes their impact. One approach they suppose to use is “viewing these things in a benevolent way”. For instance, a wife might understand her husband’s snapping as the result of a hard day instead of thinking of him as just being disrespectful. Such positive attributions help relationships to remain stable and supportive.
Another way partners remain happy together is by being aware of — and acknowledging the positives while allowing themselves to get upset about specific problems. In contrast, spouses who tend to be more blaming and less understanding create a negative environment at home. For them, specific problems appear bigger and tend to snowball. It’s amazing how a toilet seat left in the upright position can ruin a couple’s whole day together!
Some people are inherently better at seeing the positive side of situations and understanding others from a more compassionate perspective. And they will certainly be happier for it. But for the rest of us, this is a skill that can be learned — when people are interested in developing it. For instance, couples can practice sharing what makes them feel loved and then practice doing those things.
Unfortunately, life sometimes makes it hard to be positive. We all have only a limited amount of time and energy. So when problems pile up (such as job stress, deaths of loved ones, illnesses, problems related to children), people’s inner resources become strained. Even the most charitable people can reach their limit, making it difficult to approach their marriage in positive ways. Because of this, it’s important for couples to nurture their relationship during the good times. This way they have more positive feelings to rely upon when life gets tough.
In the end, maintaining a happy marriage is, to a large extent, about how couples approach each other. The more they can see their marriage in a positive light and can be supportive and understanding of each other, the more successful their marriage will be”.
To achieve this to a long and lasting marriage, Rose Pollard advised and commented that “couples’ (italics-mine) ‘in-advanced age’ means that they (italics-mine) have many of the anxieties that can be as challenging as the marriage anxieties for the newlyweds”. That's one of the things we cannot forget about, ‘time’, because time doesn't mean that much."- (Rose Pollard). Rose Pollard meant that anxieties in marriage often challenge our different expectations about marriage and love.
As we know, men and women have different kind of expectations about marriage and love as I mentioned above. The best thing is to talk about these expectations before and during the beginning of the marriage. The newly married, as well as the ‘old cargos’ in the ‘industry’ should learn to “take their time and get to know one another everyday till death do them part. They got to know if they like all the things that each person stands for so as to “be forgiving and patient and always say ‘I love you’ once in a while."-Rose Pollard).
I think that our victims, the people we are crucifying, abusing, hailing, praising and defending, Tchidi and Sofia seemed could not give each other positive feedback when it was necessary. For example, they might have failed to tell each other one thing every night (night-the most appropriate time for couples-you know what I mean?) that he or she appreciated what he or she had done that day. It seemed to me also that they do go asleep like enemies. They never talked things (their differences) over. They never gave time to express one even if it took the whole night to solve their problem. They might have not been familiar with the Swedish way of saying “the grass is not greener on the other side” or they did not understand its implication. It meant that marriage doesn’t seem to be an easy school. It is not a bed of roses either. In this ‘business’ and/or ‘vocation’, each party must respect each other’s opinions even if they sometimes don’t understand them.
And you out there, try to help advice couples who are at the verge of losing and loosing their marriage bond. It doesn’t help when we chastise, castigate, crucify, hail, praise and adore any party’s opinion and mistakes. To the unmarried out there, don’t mind, it shall soon be your own turn. Let’s see how you handle and pioneer this ‘all important graduate school. Peace to us all!
| Posted: at 3-04-2014 01:36 PM (10 years ago) | Newbie |
|
Nicksam
TRENDING GISTS 
orekiata
treasi
moniconyez
gistmania1
cocoeni
summersky
goodhealth
NaWahooo
Asksmeagain
Flozywhite
micc
richi192
malvin2525
rukia24
Fertymor
Meet Ndubuisi Egbo The First-Ever Nigerian Coach To Lead an European Team To A League Title
2024 Will Be a Tough Year For Afrobeat - Nigerian Music Executive, Paul Okoye
Actor, Adeniyi Johnson Shares Epic Throwback Photo With Wife, Seyi Edun On Movie Set
VIDEO: Singer, Wizkid Gushes Over Prophet Odumeje, Shares Plan For Him
Missing 400-Level UniAbuja Student, Murjanatu Zubairu Found Dead
No Money, No Love: Nigeria's Harsh Reality of Relationship Betrayal Revealed
Nigeria Celebrate Billionaire Business Mogul, Mike Adenuga On His 71 Years Birthday
Couple Tortures 9-Year-Old Daughter To Death For Allegedly Practising Witchcraft In Adamawa
Nigerian Cosmetic Doctor Loses Licence In UK For Giving Botox To Patient In Exchange For S3x