Making Love Today Rekindle

Anne and Patrick discuss how Drea and Nate demonstrate the relationship skill of Commitment.  Healthy commitment in a relationship is about much more than just technically being together as a couple; it involves making conscientious choices on a daily basis to choose your partner and to choose to improve the relationship one day at a time. Unlocking the power of commitment involves focusing on the relationship process of improvement, rather than just the results. 

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Sometimes you need to leave home to find something that was close to you all along. Drea and Nate grew up in the same small town, and even were in the same grade in high school, but did not truly "find" each other until they went off to college. They overcame attending rival colleges and Drea's commitment phobia to eventually get married after a few bumps along the way. 

After marriage, while their commitment to each other is now not in doubt, it hasn't always been easy! They've overcome being dirt poor, career stresses, and more to finally find a place to settle down together close to their hometown. They are living proof that life does not always turn out as you plan! 

Anne and Patrick discuss how Earl and Meagan demonstrate the relationship skill of Translating Understanding and support.  All of us have collected useful tools over the years that we have been promised will help our relationship.  However, if we want to take these tools and turn them into relationship power tools we need to be able to understand enough about our partner's experiences, preferences, and personality in order to apply these tools at the right times and in the right ways.  

Relationship Challenge of the Week: Take the time (at least a 15-minute block) for you and your partner just to get to know each other a little better. What you learn can be deep and personal, or just small and silly. It can be about childhood experiences, or just how their day went. The better we understand our partner the better we'll be able to support them at the appropriate times and in the appropriate ways. 

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Know a couple that you want to see featured on the podcast? Let us know at podcast@rekindlelovetoday.com. 

In this bonus episode, we hear from Elaine and Abe, a real-life couple in a "commuter marriage" (one lives in Texas, the other California) who also co-host the relationship podcast, Love is in the Air. Elaine and Abe share some great insights into what it means to be in a long-distance relationship, as well as answer some relationship questions of their own.  

Be sure to check out their podcast, Love is in the Air, available through most major podcast hosting sites. 

When Earl transferred law schools he wasn't necessarily expecting to find his future wife, but it didn't take long after meeting for Earl and Meagan to go from classmates to soulmates. Despite their immediate connection, the two of them came from very different worlds... well, at least from very distant states. With Meagan returning to California after graduation, and Earl taking a job in his hometown of Chicago, the two faced a relationship test perhaps more difficult than any of their law school exams. 

Separated by thousands of miles geographically, Earl and Meagan faced down how to make a long-distance relationship work. Perhaps even more challenging in some ways, when they finally did get married Meagan had to learn how to find her place in Chicago, where Earl already had a lifetime of experiences and connections. Listen in to hear about how they faced these challenges and more as they learn how to write their own relationship manual, one page at a time. 

Anne and Patrick discuss how Mike and Vauna demonstrate the relationship skill of Courage throughout their 38+ years of marriage. While many of us consider relationship courage only to really apply at the beginning of our relationship, it's actually a skill that needs to be applied all throughout the course of our relationship. It's important to show courage in the decisions we make, in allowing ourselves to open up to our partner, and in doing all the daily little things which draw us closer together as a couple. 

Relationship Challenge of the Week: Identify what things you would like to be courageous about. Think about how you have shown courage in the past, how you can be courageous today, and in what ways you'd like to be courageous in the future.  

Follow us on Instagram at rekindle.love.today or on Facebook at fb.me/rekindle.love.today. 

Know a couple that you want to see featured on the podcast? Let us know at podcast@rekindlelovetoday.com.