Your partner’s stress affects you too. You may be dealing with demanding jobs and chronic health issues. You may have personalities that are prone to anxiety.
Depending on how you respond to these daily challenges, you can lighten your load or you can wind up adding to the pressure. Your home can be a refuge where you both feel comfortable or your relationship can become another source of tension.
Learn how to keep stress from interfering with your mutual health and well-being. Use these tips to work together as a couple to relax effectively.
Benefits:
1. Gain skills. Teaching is an excellent way of learning. While you’re showing your partner how to relax, you’re strengthening your own abilities. Take turns explaining or demonstrating different relaxation techniques like massage or meditation.
2. Feel closer. Working towards any common goal can draw you together. Create your own personal rituals for making mornings run more smoothly and winding down after work.
3. Live happier. Chronic stress drains your energy and puts your health at risk. As you become more skillful at maintaining your peace of mind, the world will seem friendlier, and you’ll feel more content.
Communication Tips:
1. Listen closely. Give your partner your full attention when they’re talking with you. Turn your phone off. Make eye contact and ask pertinent questions. Reflect on what they have to say.
2. Encourage and empathize. Resist the urge to pass judgments or give unsolicited advice. Start out by validating their feelings and assuring them that they have your support.
3. Share feedback. If your partner is open to hearing a different perspective, give them the benefit of your experience. Respect their need to find their own solutions while providing any assistance you can.
4. Express your needs. You may find it difficult to be assertive in a romantic relationship even if you’re confident in other areas of your life. However, you can avoid a lot of stress by being tactful and direct with your partner about what you need.
Activity Tips:
1. Work out. Physical exercise is a great way to relieve stress and boost your mood. Buy a couple’s membership at your local gym or sign up for a co-ed volleyball league.
2. Develop hobbies. Find soothing hobbies that you can do together or at least in the same room. Play board games or take photographs. Practice the violin while your partner assembles a jigsaw puzzle.
3. Enjoy nature. Time spent outdoors is another powerful antidote for stress. Take a long walk after dinner. Spend weekends kayaking and barbecuing in the backyard. Go camping for your next summer vacation.
4. Double date. As much as you love each other, you need to cultivate close relationships with other family and friends to maintain balance in your lives. Schedule regular family visits, coffee dates, and poker nights. Going out to dinner with another couple can help you look past minor conflicts and value your partner more.
5. Spend time alone. While it’s important to feel at ease in each other’s company, each of us needs some time on our own too. You might find that you’re more enthusiastic about discussing your work day after you spend your first half hour at home listening to music or riding a stationary bike.
6. Talk with a professional. If you and your partner need more help trying to relax, consult your doctor. They can help you find out if there is any underlying medical condition that needs treatment and suggest other resources such as talk therapy.
Learning how to relax as a couple will help you both to become happier and more successful. You’ll build a stronger relationship and enjoy your time together more.
*DISCLAIMER: This is general advice and not directed at any specific situation.
THE BEST COUPLE COUNSELOR IN MIAMI BEACH, FLORIDA
SUSAN RESNIK, M.Ed, LMHC
Susan Resnik is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor and Certified SYMBIS Facilitator who specializes in couple counseling. She’s been in the mental health counseling field for 25 years and has won multiple awards on her counseling excellence.