Transparency
Partners who are aware of what the other is doing get to feel safe and develop a sense of security and consistency about their relationship. It's a simple thing to pick up the phone, shoot a text or an email and say, "I'm on my way." or "I'm late." or "I forgot the milk."
Communication
Talking to one another about everything supports this idea of transparency. We are the only species on the planet that has been gifted with symbolic language, yet we often fail to use it in its most effective capacity - building and maintaining healthy relationships.
Putting Things on the Table
If you're going to be transparent and communicate, then you might as well put it all out there. Truth goes a lot farther than eggshell walking.A source of potential conflict and discontent is transformed into a source of mutual growth and cultivation. Telling the truth about the way that we feel can only benefit a relationship. Stuffing never ends well.
Date Night
One of the most stable couples I know has never, in 42 years of marriage - not for kids, or weather or social commitments or work - missed a Friday night dinner date.When the conversation is open, nothing is left to the imagination and there is a sense of safety, a date night is just the thing to create a container of romance around the openness fostered by good communication. Remember gentleman, the way to a man's heart may be through his stomach, but the way to a woman's is through her ears.
Respect
When partners hold each other as their priority, respect is a natural eventuality. Constantly being late, moving the finish line, saying one thing then doing another without preamble all show a lack of respect and consideration.Successful couples start with a successful sense of what is important on the part of each partner. True love is about putting someone else's needs before our own. Now, that doesn't mean sacrifice - it means simple consideration. When that consideration is in play, so is the respect that supports strong connection.
