How To Communicate Better With Your Spouse
Living with another person, no matter who they may be, will always come with challenges. But when it comes to your spouse, communication within the relationship is the vital ingredient. Communication is a skill, and one partner may be a stronger communicator than the other. Even if communication is not exactly thriving in your relationship, it can be learned and improved.
When there’s a serious and consistent lack of communication that is present between you and your spouse, it can take a serious toll on your relationship over time. If you’re finding that silence, avoidance, or frustrating thoughts are substituting respectful communication with your loved one, here are a few ways to break through that silence and start communicating properly.
Listen
Poor communication doesn’t mean there’s a lack of conversation. It means that what’s being said is not being properly heard, considered, or acknowledged. So if you and your spouse have a tendency to interrupt each other – stop and listen. Try to give time for each of you to talk and express your feelings and frustrations so that you can both thoroughly listen and respect what’s being said.
Be Respectful
Being respectful and keeping it in mind each time there is tension or disputes between you and your partner, can help maintain focus on solving and eliminating destructive feelings or situations by encouraging understanding. And that means no name-calling and no yelling.
Be Open and Honest
Without the ability to be open and honest with each other, there’s little room to grow. So it’s important to provide each other with the ability to understand what and how you are feeling, but also to encourage one another to feel comfortable enough to share those thoughts and feelings without judgement.
Forget About the Past
Nothing good can come from stirring up destructive emotions or situations from the past during discussions and arguments in the present. So stop using previous situations as leverage. Learning to let go of the past and focus on here and now will help your relationship and communication flourish and grow.
Seek Help
Good and healthy communication isn’t always an easy skill to acquire for some people. That’s where seeking help from professional counselling can help. Take advantage of professional guidance to help identify, improve, and restore how your and your spouse interact with one another.
If you’re finding that the communication between you and your partner is beginning to weigh heavily on your relationship, try to focus on these factors for improving your communication. And if that fails, your best course of action is to seek professional guidance through couples counselling – request an appointment with Ottawa Counselling & Mediation Services today!