Improving Your Romantic Relationship
In honor of Valentine’s Day, our feature article is on improving your romantic relationship. Whether you have been together just a few years – or a few decades – most relationships can benefit from some touch-ups. However, if you have significant unresolved issues in your relationship, they may need to be addressed before things improve in the bedroom. Please note that there are some adult-themed parts of this article, so be prepared!
Do you have problems in your relationship?
When things are not going well in a sexual and romantic relationship, it can really help if both partners try to understand why. If you are in a relationship that’s in trouble, ask yourself the following questions:
- What do you each want out of the relationship? Are you getting it?
- Are you about to leave your partner? Or do you still enjoy your life together?
- Are you ready to sacrifice time and energy to make your relationship work again?
- Do you still love each other?
Your answers to these questions will help you pinpoint the extent of the problem and your expectations for change.
While every couple is different, below are some common causes of relationship difficulties and ways to tackle. However, it’s unlikely things will improve if both partners aren’t prepared to work through the issues.
Part 1: How can you improve your relationship?
Stop the blame game: When things are going badly, couples tend to ask who is at fault and which of them is to blame. Neither of these questions is helpful. It’s better by far for both partners to accept that they share joint responsibility for the relationship, and to agree that when they are having problems they should work at them together.
Find time to work on your relationship: In today’s busy, modern world, you need to find time for each other. This is not easy if you both have hectic careers, and becomes even more difficult when you have children. But if you have established a will to make things better, then you need to look at your joint schedules and find time when you can be together. If you don’t find time, improvement will be slow or non-existent.
As a therapist, I often take calls from couples who want to come for therapy to improve aspects of their relationship, but who then cannot find a mutually convenient time to fit in an appointment. This is ludicrous. It suggests both the relationship and the work needed on it is a low priority. If you can make time to talk and to be together, you may well overcome your difficulties.
Change the way you communicate: Frequently, couples stop making an effort with each other. They may insult each other or take each other for granted. Suppose the door bell rings. One partner may yell at the other: ‘Get that will you?’ It doesn’t take much effort to add the word ‘please’ or to ask in a different way, such as: ‘Would you mind answering the door?’ This may sound a small point, and maybe an old-fashioned one, but when couples bellow demands at each other, it sounds abrasive and disrespectful. When aggression becomes a habit, it can seriously damage the romance in a relationship.
Dr Jack Dominian is a psychiatrist who has had a long and distinguished career in the treatment of relationship problems. He says a couple should eliminate one phrase from their vocabulary: ‘the trouble with you is…’ (or one of many variants). I would add that sarcasm is unpleasant and unproductive. It invariably leads to one partner feeling ‘put down’, which isn’t a good emotional state for a healthy relationship.
The key thing here is that you should make sure you show each other the respect that you did when you first met.
Make an effort for each other: Lack of respect can also be shown in appearances. It’s very sad that couples often stop making an effort with how they look. A small thing like changing work clothes for something brighter for dinner – and the woman putting on some make-up and the man having a shave – can transform a routine evening into more of an occasion.
Try the 10-minute rule: Men often say: ‘She just wants to go on and on about things, and it drives me mad.’ While women say: ‘We never talk.’
Both parties cannot be right! If you and your partner are struggling to discuss the things that matter to you both, it’s a good idea to deploy the 10-minute rule.
- One partner has his or her say for 10 minutes. During this time the other partner listens and does not interrupt.
- After 10 minutes, the second partner takes the floor for 10 minutes. Men, in particular, appreciate the chance to have their say without interruption and with the guarantee that the conversation will not go on all night.
- After both of you have had your say, have a further 10 minutes between you.
- The whole discussion should be over in 30 minutes.
- If both parties agree to carry on with the conversation, that’s fine, but it should never go on for more than an hour.
If you both know that you have limited time, you will be more concise, and hopefully spare each other any histrionic behavior.
So, simple things like talking to each other with respect, trying to look appealing to your partner and using the 10-minute rule can give a big lift to your relationship. But what else is there?
Have a date night: Try to have one evening out per week, just the two of you. If you have children this is more difficult to arrange, but it’s not impossible. And when you have this ‘date’, avoid talking about your offspring or work.
Socialize as a couple: Another good thing for many couples is to have other couples that you socialize with on a regular basis, even if it’s just for dinner or a card game around the kitchen table. You’ll have a good laugh, and if these friends have known you since the beginning of your relationship, it will remind you of happier days and you’ll feel younger and more carefree.
Call in the professionals: If your relationship is in real trouble and none of the above suggestions help significantly, you might want to consider having some relationship therapy.
Part 2: How can you improve your sex life?
Look at the whole relationship: It is unlikely that a sex life in trouble will improve greatly if work is not put in on the whole relationship. Of course, there are times when both partners may be steamed up and the sex works wonderfully. But apart from these spontaneous and happy times, couples often complain that they don’t make love as much as they did, or that one or both partners have lost the urge. Increasingly we are seeing couples – men as well as women – who have little interest in sex. Fatigue is often the main culprit here. Many people now work such long hours that they feel permanently exhausted.
Often a loss or decrease in libido may be about resentment or a pervading sense of unhappiness with the relationship itself. For example, a man may lose interest in sex if the woman is very aggressive in bed or out, nags him to do better sexually, or if she keeps complaining that he doesn’t do his share of the housework. And a woman may feel a lack of interest sexually for similar reasons; including a perception that her man never says he loves her unless he wants sex.
It needs to be emphasized that before you look at your sex life, you should look more generally at your relationship. Having done that, there are plenty of ways in which you can liven up your sex life.
- You might want to take turns in “running” the sex session. In other words, the man may make all the suggestions one night and the woman another. This often leads to much greater variety. It also gives each partner the opportunity to “suggest” something to their partner that they really enjoy or would like to try. As they say, everything is game – as long as both partners are in agreement.
- A short break away is always a good bet for enlivening a relationship. A recent survey showed that 96 percent of women felt sexier when they were on vacation – even just a short weekend break.
- You might use fantasies, if the same sorts of things turn you on.
- You might read erotica to each other before, or even during, sex.
- Some couples enjoy pornography together – usually videos of attractive couples making love. There is currently a video series out called “Better Sex” and is available through Amazon.com or a number of other outlets.
- Some couples like to dress up or to use vibrators or other sex toys. They might also enjoy reading sex manuals on different sexual positions, or dressing up in sexy lingerie.
Note from Sandra: The above advice assumes that neither partner has a serious sex problem such as premature or delayed ejaculation, pain during intercourse, or difficulty getting or maintaining an erection. If you have a problem that makes sex difficult, give either Sandra or Tom a call.
