Marriage can be wonderful, but no relationship is without its challenges. How a couple faces these inevitable challenges, though, can either put a significant strain on the relationship or strengthen and deepen their bond.
Working through issues in a conscious and healthy way can be difficult, which is why it can help to have a relationship coach on your side to help you navigate marital stress and conflict. Continue reading to learn more about common issues faced by married couples, and if you find yourself in any of these situations and would like help, contact me, Susan Ortolano at Radiant Pathways Inc. for relationship coaching that can transform your relationship or marriage and help resolve your issues and rekindle the magic.
Money Problems
Finances can lead to some of the biggest conflicts in any relationship, but particularly for married couples. Whether you’re struggling with debt, a job loss, salary differences, spending habits, or other financial issues, money can quickly become a sore spot in a relationship.
Money issues often have other dynamics underlying them, like power struggles and different core values. You and your partner may disagree on how to spend or save your money, and you may value thriftiness more than your partner. It’s important to discuss your lifestyle choices and priorities together, as well as recognize that everyone’s money consciousness is different.
In fact, often, opposites tend to attract in marriages. Maybe one of you loves working with numbers while the other is more of a free spirit that is inclined to spend. If you start to see each other’s differences as strengths rather than points of contention, you can become a stronger team and a create financial life that honors both of you.
Issues With Children
Children can bring great meaning to your life and strengthen your marriage, but they also bring a lot of additional stress and responsibility. There are new roles to negotiate, and you can start to feel that work and household chores aren’t being evenly distributed. It may be harder to bond as a couple because you are caring for kids. If your children are struggling or having health issues, stress can take a huge toll on your relationship. Even if things with the kids are going well, you may have differences of opinions on how to parent or argue over decisions being made on behalf of your children.
Miscommunication
Poor communication or negative communication patterns can wear away at your relationship. Conscious communication is key to a healthy relationship, but we can fall into negative patterns with our spouses, fall into communication patterns that only put more fuel on the existing flames that can be difficult to break out of. A relationship coach can help you to identify these poor communication patterns, cycles, and habits and begin to create new ones and build a stronger, more strongly bonded partnership.
Miscommunication can also occur during conflicts, such as shutting down or having difficulty expressing your feelings. Partners may even escalate to contempt, yelling, blaming, and disrespect, which causes grief for both spouses. Learning to resolve conflict and communicate during conflict can help you work towards having a marriage that has more connection, flow, and intimacy.
Bad Habits = Deeper Issues
We all have bad habits, and sometimes marriage problems can be solved by identifying those and digging deeper to see if they come from old wounds, trauma, or belief systems. Once we identify what these habits are at the surface, we can gradually dig until we get to the root of the habit itself. These habits are not about what we see or do on the surface, as they come from something else.
Identifying our bad habits takes a great deal of self-reflection, and changing them takes conscious awareness and intentional work. If you’ve found yourself busy, stressed, or on autopilot, you may be allowing bad patterns that can damage your relationship. People don’t consciously nag each other or leave messes for the other person to clean up, but you can consciously work on discovering and healing wounds at the root so the bad habits can finally change. Then, neither the habits nor the deeper, underlying issues will interfere in your relationship with yourself as well as with your marriage.
Radiant Pathways Inc. – Couples Relationship Coaching
Here at Radiant Pathways, Susan Ortolano helps couples from all walks of life and in all stages of their relationship find the tools and learn the skills they need to thrive. If you’re looking for a spiritually-minded, empathic relationship coach to help you overcome issues in your marriage that may be tearing it apart, contact Susan Ortolano at Radiant Pathways today.
Susan Ortolano – Relationship Coach
Want more? Check out my other love notes, attend a free training for single women, or contact me, Susan Ortolano, today!