10 Habits of Happy Couples

Improve your relationship today with these tried-and-true tips

By Mark Goulston Posted August 21, 2008 from Divorce360.com

Photo: © Comstock

What does it take to be happy in a relationship? If you’re working to improve your marriage, here are the 10 habits of happy couples.

1. Go to bed at the same time
Remember the beginning of your relationship, when you couldn’t wait to go to bed with each other to make love? Happy couples resist the temptation to go to bed at different times. They go to bed at the same time, even if one partner wakes up later to do things while their partner sleeps.

2. Cultivate common interests
After the passion settles down, it’s common to realize that you have few interests in common. But don’t minimize the importance of activities you can do together that you both enjoy. If common interests are not present, happy couples develop them. At the same time, be sure to cultivate interests of your own; this will make you more interesting to your mate and prevent you from appearing too dependent.

3. Walk hand in hand or side by side
Rather than one partner lagging or dragging behind the other, happy couples walk comfortably hand in hand or side by side. They know it’s more important to be with their partner than to see the sights along the way.

4. Make trust and forgiveness your default mode
If and when they have a disagreement or argument, and if they can’t resolve it, happy couples default to trusting and forgiving rather than distrusting and begrudging.

5. Focus more on what your partner does right than what he or she does wrong
If you look for things your partner does wrong, you can always find something. If you look for what he or she does right, you can always find something, too. It all depends on what you want to look for. Happy couples accentuate the positive.

6. Hug each other as soon as you see each other after work
Our skin has a memory of “good touch” (loved), “bad touch” (abused) and “no touch” (neglected). Couples who say hello with a hug keep their skin bathed in the “good touch,” which can inoculate your spirit against anonymity in the world.

7. Say “I love you” and “Have a good day” every morning
This is a great way to buy some patience and tolerance as each partner sets out each day to battle traffic jams, long lines and other annoyances.

8. Say “Good night” every night, regardless of how you feel
This tells your partner that, regardless of how upset you are with him or her, you still want to be in the relationship. It says that what you and your partner have is bigger than any single upsetting incident.

9. Do a “weather” check during the day
Call your partner at home or at work to see how his or her day is going. This is a great way to adjust expectations so that you’re more in sync when you connect after work. For instance, if your partner is having an awful day, it might be unreasonable to expect him or her to be enthusiastic about something good that happened to you.

10. Be proud to be seen with your partner
Happy couples are pleased to be seen together and are often in some kind of affectionate contact — hand on hand or hand on shoulder or knee or back of neck. They are not showing off but rather just saying that they belong with each other.

Happy couples have different habits than unhappy couples. A habit is a discrete behavior that you do automatically and that takes little effort to maintain. It takes 21 days of daily repetition of a new a behavior to become a habit. So select one of the behaviors in the list above to do for 21 days and voila, it will become a habit…and make you happier as a couple. And if you fall off the wagon, don’t despair, just apologize to your partner, ask their forgiveness and recommit yourself to getting back in the habit.

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How Working Moms Can Have a Happy Marriage
Don’t Groan, Date Night Really Does Build a Happy Marriage
By Katherine Lewis, About.com

After working all day, feeding the family, cleaning the kitchen and putting the kids to bed, the last thing on your mind is how to build a happy marriage. But a happy marriage is the foundation for your family’s well-being. It deserves your attention.

If you take a few minutes every day to focus on keeping your marriage happy, everyone will be better off — including you.

Date Night Works

It’s the oldest piece of advice for a reason — date night really helps keep your marriage happy. You don’t need to have a standing babysitter every Friday night, like Barack and Michelle Obama, but you must devote one-on-one time to your spouse on a regular basis.

The work of raising children and supporting a family is all consuming. It’s easy for your marriage to become an afterthought. When you have a regular time set aside, you’re forced to build that connection.

If you’re concerned about the cost of child care for a weekly date night, get creative. Can you ask a neighbor to sit in your house during the kids’ nap on Saturday afternoon so you can get out for coffee as a couple?

Or consider having a regular date morning — breakfast after the kids get on the school bus. You can negotiate flexible hours at work to accommodate arriving an hour late. As a bonus, you’ll be alert and fresh. You may even find conversation flows more easily and you have more energy for your spouse compared with dinner at the end of a long week.

Think of Your Spouse First

Imagine if every morning you woke up asking, “How can I make my husband’s day as special and wonderful as possible?” And if he woke asking the same question? You’d be guaranteed a happy marriage.

Now I realize that’s not a realistic daily occurrence. We so often wake up thinking, “Is it my turn to bring snack for soccer practice?” But if you at least try to put your spouse or partner first, and he does the same for you, you’ll be a step ahead.

And those times when you each think of the other first? It’s as beautiful a moment as reading a classic O. Henry story.

Communicate With Words

A happy marriage would be simple if we all could read minds. Unfortunately, my husband communicates best by hearing words that I speak. I’m betting yours does too.

Don’t expect your spouse to guess why you’re upset or to know what will help you. You have to ask for what you need, whether it’s time alone or a big hug or for him to pick up his dirty socks from the floor.

Trust me, he’ll thank you for spelling out the solution to your bad mood. He loves you more than anyone in the world — he wants to fix the problem.

When you ask for what you need, whether it’s emotional support or household chores, it helps to use the manners mama taught you. The same request comes off very differently if it’s done with a smile and a hug, as opposed to a whiny tone or angry face.

Say Thank You and Sorry

And while I’m on the topic, many a marriage has been saved by a well-timed apology. Even if you don’t think you did anything wrong, can’t you honestly say that you’re sorry to see your spouse so upset?

When your partner is furious or hurt, the most important thing is to hear his anger. Don’t get defensive and launch into explanations. Let him know you are listening by giving the gift of empathy. It won’t kill you to say “I’m sorry,” and it may just take the wind out of his sails. Certainly, it allows him to admit he might have been in the wrong also.

And when your husband does something special for you, even if you had to ask for it, make sure to say thank you. There are other much-appreciated ways to reward a man, so consider one of those too.

Touch Each Other

That brings us to the bedroom. Yes, a fulfilling sex life is an integral part of many happy marriages. But just as important are the hugs, kisses and casual touches that remind you of the time when you met and fell in love. Before kids, before the mortgage, before the bills.

When you’re raising babies and young children, their physical demands can be exhausting, especially for moms. So you need to make a conscious decision to save some energy for a physical connection with your husband too — even if it means leaving the laundry or the email or the thank you notes for another day.

You may not be in the mood. You may feel uncomfortable with your post-baby body. But if you start to let your sex life slide, you can quickly become little more than roommates with the man who was once the love of your life. And you may find that once you start feeling romantic and enjoying intimacy again, you tap into your pre-mommyhood libido.

Assume Good Intentions

Our society is so focused on grievance and complaint. It’s easy to develop a narrative in your head about what your spouse has done wrong and how put upon you are.

Keeping mental lists of wrongdoing is a sure recipe for drama and turbulence in your home. Instead, try to think of a positive reason that he might have for acting the way he did.

Maybe he forgot to pick up the kids at daycare because he was working hard to support your family. Maybe he ignored your mother-in-law’s nasty comment about working moms because he didn’t hear it. Maybe he was going to get to the dirty dishes in the sink after the kids were asleep, and then he got distracted by the bills.

Your made-up explanation may not be the right one, but thinking through the alternatives gives you space to imagine that there are valid reasons for his actions. The next step — ask him what was going on. You can even have the conversation on date night!

Healthy Habits that Contribute to Happy Marriages

When you see people in happy marriages and relationships, it’s hard not to wonder what their secret is. Every couple has its own chemistry and protocol, but chances are they have made a concerted effort to make their relationship work well. Anything worth having requires hard work—and marriages are no exception. However, if couples begin to implement some healthy habits throughout the course of their relationship, chances are it will seem less like work and more like the best choice they ever made.

Here are some healthy habits that contribute to happy marriages:

Don’t Misdirect Your Feelings
After spending your entire day at work or doing things with others, it can be quite easy to get in the habit of unloading on your spouse when you get home. Many people spend their days at work thinking about home, and vice-versa. It’s important to remember that while your spouse is there to support you, they shouldn’t be your emotional punching bag. If someone at work is getting to you, address the problem with them and don’t take it out on your spouse. Don’t hurt the ones you love; address the source of the problem.

Spend Time with Others

The idea of spending all of your time together is a huge obligation that many married couples can’t fulfill. Don’t get stuck on this idea; it is important to have other people in your life to talk to and spend time with. No one should ever have to carry the burden of sole friend and emotional cheerleader. Parcel off your feelings and concerns to various friends and family members—it will leave more time for the two of you to share your love and time together in a positive manner.

Share Quality Time
Another habit that many couples fall into is the day-to-day routine. While it’s not possible to do something new and exciting all of the time, you can still spend some quality time with one another each day. Turn the television off, take a walk, or just enjoy each other’s company in silence with a cup of tea. Every relationship is different, so do what feels right for you and your spouse.

Designate Time for Business Matters

Many people going through divorces cite financial problems as one of the main contributing factors to their marriage’s demise. If you are experiencing tough financial times, there is a time and place to discuss these things. Instead of talking about problems and money—or any other business, for that matter—all of the time, designate time to discuss these issues.
You don’t have to rehash things constantly for them to be real. Bringing it up all the time will only cause more distress. Sit down and discuss budgeting, spending limits, and any other matters of importance at a designated time. Once you have covered what needs to be done, you are free to get on with your lives together. This is a simple way to make sure that money and financial issues aren’t the beginning of the end of your marriage.

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This post was contributed by Holly McCarthy, who writes on the subject of dating sites. She invites your feedback at hollymccarthy12 at gmail dot com

Happy marriages and unhappy divorces
by Mona Charen

In the beginning was the myth that children were better off if their unhappy parents divorced. “It’s better to come from a broken home than to live in one,” they said. And millions of American parents separated. But after several decades had passed, researchers like Barbara Dafoe Whitehead and others showed that divorce was much worse for children than an unhappy home. Now, the Institute for American Values (www.americanvalues.org) has released a new study with some intriguing data about the effects of divorce on the unhappy couples themselves. It seems that another great myth is about to tumble — the myth that at least divorce makes unhappily married adults happier. Even this may not be true. According to the survey conducted by a team of family researchers, unhappily married adults who divorced were no happier five years after the divorce than were equally unhappy marrieds who remained together. And two-thirds of unhappily married people who remained married reported that their marriages were happy five years later. Even among those who had rated their marriages as “very unhappy,” nearly 80 percent said they were happily married five years later. These were not merely bored or dissatisfied whiners. They had endured serious problems, including alcoholism, infidelity, verbal abuse, emotional neglect, depression, illness, and work and money troubles. Even more surprising, unhappy spouses who divorced actually showed slightly more depressive symptoms five years later than those who didn’t. (They did, however, report more personal growth.) And, make of this what you will, the divorced sample reported a good deal more alcohol consumption than the married group. The Institute for American Values report is leavened with New Yorker cartoons. On the cover, a wife addresses her husband tenderly, “Sweetheart, I don’t want anyone to make you unhappy except me.” Another shows a woman shouting out an open window: “Wait! Come back! I was just kidding about wanting to be happy.” The data show that if a couple is unhappy, the chances of their being happily married five years hence are 64 percent if they remain together but only 19 percent if they divorce and remarry. (The authors acknowledge that five years is a relatively short period and many divorced people will eventually remarry, some happily.) How did the unhappy couples turn their lives around? The study found three principal techniques. The first was endurance. Many couples do not so much solve their problems as transcend them. By taking one day at a time and pushing through their difficulties, many couples found that time itself often improved matters. Moreover, these couples maintained a negative view of the effects of divorce. “The grass is always greener,” explained one husband, “but it’s Astroturf.” Others were more aggressive. Those the researchers labeled the “marital work ethic” types tackled their problems by arranging for more private time with one another, seeking counseling (from clergy or professionals), receiving help from in-laws or other relatives, or in some cases, threatening divorce or consulting a divorce lawyer. In the third category were the “personal happiness seekers” who found other ways to improve their overall contentment even if they could not markedly improve their marital happiness. Certainly the survey found some marriages that were impossible to save and some divorced couples who were happier than those who had remained married. That is as one would expect. But the most telling aspect of this research is the light it sheds on the importance of the attitude toward marriage. Those who enter marriage with a dim (some might say accurate) view of divorce and a strong religious or other motivation for avoiding it are not only less likely to divorce, they are also less likely to be unhappy. That is the arresting news here. We’ve known that commitment was good for the children of such marriages. And we’ve known that commitment was good for society. But until now, it was not clear that commitment actually made married couples themselves more likely to be happy. The capstone of this research is yet another New Yorker cartoon: A man stands with his arm around his wife’s shoulders and explains to another couple, “Our divorce wasn’t working.”

Three Easy Tips to Help Build a Happy Marriage

It is part of the popular culture to make fun of how poorly marriages work. If I had a nickel for the number of times I’ve heard people complain about their spouses, I’d be an obscenely wealthy woman. Sometimes comments are made in jest, but usually, they’re tinged with a degree of hopelessness and suffering.

This does not need to be the case. My husband and I have been married for over twelve years. The first several years were difficult. But then, we searched for experts in marriage from which to learn. Since that time, our marriage has flowered into a powerful, harmonious partnership. Today, we’re more in love than ever and we’re enjoying the fruits of our labor in creating a great marriage.

Here are several tips to help you build a happy marriage. I hope they will help you as much as they helped us. Before you go on, here’s a hint about this information: Let it sink in. The things we’ve learned are powerful and become more so the more you work with them. Let them slowly re-train you to think about your marriage differently.

Tip #1 to Build a Happy Marriage: Grow Personally – Weren’t we suppose to be talking about marriage? Yes, we were. But a happy marriage begins with happy people. Many people aren’t happy in their lives and they expect a marriage to make them happy. This is not a healthy expectation. Marriage cannot make an unhappy person happy. It just can’t. And the more we rely on marriage to do that, the more we’ll destroy our marriage with unrealistic expectations.

Each spouse in a marriage needs to take on living a happy life and bringing happiness to the marriage. The best way to do this is to take on growing as a person. I’ve found that usually, one spouse takes this one first, then the other follows. If you’re the one to start the ball rolling in this arena, don’t complain. Someone has to start, it might as well be you. Another time, your spouse will initiate the positive action.

Begin by improving an aspect of your life that is important to you, then go on to whatever is next. Soon, you’ll find that your spouse is inspired to do the same thing.

Tip #2 to Build a Happy Marriage – Realize that You Don’t Need Your Spouse – What? Am I crazy? No. I’m not crazy. You don’t need one another. You already have all that you need. The silly saying of “you complete me” gives off the wrong impression. We’re each complete. Can you imagine what a setup this “you complete me” expectation is for a marriage? This often puts one spouse into the position of neediness and the other spouse in a position of obligation. Powerful marriages are built on something other than the needy/obligated model.

Any strong marriage, that takes on the proportions of true partnership, must go through a phase where each spouse realizes that they are strong people, able of creating a great life for themselves. This puts the marriage into the context of something that we freely choose to do, rather than a net that we’re caught up in. When we realize this, we become more responsible for creating our marriage. When this occurs, we’re generous, forgiving, and compassionate because we choose to be in the relationship.

Tip #3 to Build a Happy Marriage – Be Disciplined About What You Think About – Most of us carry around our worries and concerns so that they are foremost in our minds at all times. When this is the case, days can go by when we don’t even notice our spouse at more than a superficial level. When this happens, people remark that they become roommates with their spouse and they don’t love each other any more. This is not because they really don’t love one another, it is often because they haven’t put any concentrated effort into spending conscious time with each other.

Upon the advice of our marriage expert, my husband and I practiced putting aside our worries of the day each evening when we’d spend time together. At first, this was difficult and we found that there were certain issues that we couldn’t let go of. When this was the case, we’d have to deal with those issues in a timely manner and then, we could go back to really enjoying our time together.

As we got better, it became natural for us to enjoy each other’s company. We made it a point to spend time developing our relationship and creating a strong marriage, rather than relying on simply living in the same house to keep us together

Couples Therapy and Happy Marriages

Good communication is the key to happy relationships among other things. It is unfortunate that the divorce rate in the United States and worldwide too is on the rise. Couples therapy is aimed at resolving the problem between husband and wife so that they can lead a happy life devoid of serious conflicts and heated arguments. The therapist or the psychologist help the couple identify problem and suggest behavior and other amendments so that both partners are contented. Couples therapy is blend of education, mediation and psychotherapy.

The quality of communication between couples is the most crucial factor that distinguishes happy marriages from unhappy ones. The ability to communicate well also is the best indicator of relationship satisfaction and stability over time. In other words, the number of problems, individual personality traits or differences of opinion has nothing to do with happy or unhappy marriages. Instead, it is how couples talk about their problems and differences. Communication is the key, and it is believed that communication skills can easily be learned.

Each couple has their own problems; and during couples therapy, they identify the cause of the problems with the help of a psychologist. For example, if a couple argues a lot, during the sessions they are made to think the reasons of those arguments and then finding a resolve. The resolution could be changing the way they interact with each other or react to different situations or behavioral changes.

In couples therapy, couples learn how to identify destructive forms of communication and how to develop effective communication and problem-solving techniques. Couples learn how to use their creativity and resources to preserve the strength of their relationship while meeting the challenges that life brings. The couples are taught that listening to the other person is also equally important as speaking ones mind. They learn that they need to attain a common goal of happy marriage by sharing their problems and supporting each other.

Want a Happy Marriage? Be Nice, Don’t Nitpick
By Jeanie Lerche Davis

Secrets of a Happy Marriage

Long-lasting, happy marriages have more than great communication, Boon says. “Dr. Gottman brings up something no one ever talks about—that irreconcilable differences are normal, that you just have to come to terms with them, not try to resolve the unresolvable. On some level, that should have been obvious, but it hasn’t been,” she tells WebMD.

Most marriage therapists focus on “active listening,” which involves paraphrasing, validating, affirming your spouse’s feedback, says Boon. “That’s all well and good and may help you get through some conflicts in a less destructive way. But, as Dr. Gottman puts it, ‘you’re asking people to do Olympic-style gymnastics when they can hardly crawl.’ Many people will fail at those techniques. Research indicates that most people are dissatisfied with the outcome of marital therapy, that the problems come back.”

In happy marriages, Boon points out, couples don’t do any of that!

Instead, you must be nice to your partner, research shows. Make small gestures, but make them often. “The little things matter,” says Boon. “What a happy marriage is based on is deep friendship, knowing each other well, having mutual respect, knowing when it makes sense to try to work out an issue, when it is not solvable. Many kinds of issues simply aren’t solvable.”

Learn how to identify issues that must be resolved, that can be “fruitfully discussed,” she notes. “Learn to live with the rest. Just put up with it. All you do is waste your breath and get angry over these things that can’t be changed. You’re better off not trying to change them. Work around them. Commit to staying together, even though this is something you don’t like.”

A long-lasting, happy marriage is about knowing your partner, being supportive, and being nice. Research shows that, “for every one negative thing you do, there must be five positive things that balance it out,” Boon tells WebMD. “Make sure to balance the negatives with positives. Your marriage has to be heavily in favor of the positives.”

While it sounds easy—and while it can be easy—this commitment to being nice is no small matter, Boon says. “You have to do nice things often. But it’s harder to be nice when the heat is on, when you’re really angry, or when something has happened for the 15th time. Nevertheless, the balance must be heavily, heavily stacked in the positive, to have a happy marriage.”

Also, couples must stay in touch with their special ways of repairing the relationship, Boon says. “It can be humor; it can be whatever helps diffuse the escalating heat. In happy marriages, couples naturally do this. They deflect the anger, and get back on an even keel.”

What makes for a happy marriage?
Mark Dombeck, Ph.D.

In order to best understand how a marriage can come apart, it is helpful first to understand some of the ways that healthy marriages are structured, and how they function.

Healthy marriage partners are compatible partners

In a marriage that is to stand the test of time, romance is important, but compatibility is critical. By and large, partners in healthy marriages come to agree upon common agendas regarding the directions their marriage will take, and the way each partner will behave. These common agreements may never have been discussed, but they will be present implicitly in how each partner chooses to act.

Areas of agreement that partners will have dealt with will generally include:

Friendship. Successful partners develop a significant friendship at the core of their relationship. They genuinely like one another, amuse and comfort one another, and prefer to spend time with each other. This friendship and mutual liking is somewhat separate from other aspects of the relationship (sexuality, for instance), and can survive the loss of these other aspects of the relationship. A strong friendship and mutual liking is often the basis for repair of troubled relationships.
Role expectations. The partners reach agreement with regard to how household responsibilities are divided and how they will behave towards each other. Traditionally, and still dominantly, the male or masculine-identified partner will take on the majority of financial obligations, while the female or feminine-identified partner will take on nurturing roles. Tradition has broken down significantly in the industrialized west over the last century, however, and it is not at all uncommon to find ‘women’ who take on financial obligations, ‘men’ who take on nurturing roles, or to find both partners sharing these roles to one degree or another. Failure to reach agreement with regard to roles can be a major source of conflict.
Emotional intimacy. Successful partners learn to trust each other, to be vulnerable with each other, to laugh together, and to support one another in times of need.
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Sexual expectations. Partners come to basic agreements as to how they will be sexual with each other. Frequently (traditionally) this means that they will be sexual with one another, and not with other people, but this is not necessarily the case. Sexual expectations may further dictate the kinds and patterns of sexual activities that each partner will and will not engage in. Coming to agreement with regard to sexuality can increase trust that couples feel for each other, and failure to reach agreement can be cause for conflict. As sexual activity is strongly rewarding and bonding for couples, it is best for marriages when partners agree upon sexual expectations and are both satisfied with their lovemaking.
Vision/Goals. Successful partners agree that they want to pursue the same life paths, values and goals and mutually commit to those paths, values and goals. Examples might include decisions to have children or not, to attend or not attend religious services, to raise a child in a particular faith, to save or spend money, or to live frugally or extravagantly, etc.
Successful marriages tend to be populated by partners who come to their marriage with pre-existing significant compatibilities (of personality, temperament, goals, etc.) that make it easier for them to reach agreement because they frequently end up wanting the same thing. They may share commonalities with regard to personality, temperament, or preferences for volatile or conflict-avoiding interactions, as well as goals, religious and ethical ideals, etc.

While these areas of agreement do tend to be present in healthy marriages, we should note that no marriage is perfect, and that many perfectly good marriages harbor disagreements with regard to some of the domains we’ve discussed. In general, however, the more domains you and your partner are in agreement on, the better are your chances for a healthy marriage.

Background factors play a minor role in determining marriage success.

Personality, temperament and goal compatibility is very important in determining whether a marriage will be strong. Other background factors are also important, however. Better marriages are reported by people who chose to marry later in life as opposed to younger, by people who recall being very intensely in love with their partners prior to getting married, and by people who maintain close family relationships and whose parents’ approved of their marriage. Also, people identified with more traditional sex-role and religious values tend to report having higher quality marriages overall (although it isn’t clear that such people aren’t just reporting positive outcomes based on their desire to present themselves in a positive light). When all factors relating to marital adjustment are considered together, personality and life-goal compatibility seems to be of paramount importance, and background factors such as whether partners come from similar family, religious or economic backgrounds or whether they have similar dating histories appear to be of lessor importance.

5 Things Super-Happy Couples Do Every Day
Add page to favoritesBy Ty Wenger

We paw each other in public. We goof around like a pair of simpletons. We basically act like giddy newlyweds in the middle of happy hour. Sometimes we’ll do something so revolting, like sitting on the couch and drawing smiley faces on the bottoms of each other’s feet, that we’re forced to make hacking, gagging noises to maintain our dignity. Actually, this happened just last week.

See, I told you it was disgusting.

It hasn’t always been this way. In fact, I’m not ashamed to admit that our current marital bliss is the result of almost a year of counseling, a desperate effort undertaken several years ago, when we appeared destined for doom. What we learned then is something all happy couples eventually discover: A good marriage is a bit like a pet boa constrictor: either you feed it every day or bad things happen. Daily habits are extremely helpful in forging solid marriages, says couples therapist Tina Tessina, author of How to Be a Couple and Still Be Free. “If you’re really interested in making your relationship work, little rituals are a great way to do it.”

Want examples? Look no further than Tessina and her husband, Richard, who have developed an array of daily relationship builders during their 19 years of marriage: Every morning, they repeat their wedding vows to each other; they hold regular state-of-the-union meetings; and (my personal favorite) Tina routinely leaves Post-it Notes for Richard (“Hi, honey! Have a great day!”) stuck to the underside of the toilet seat (think about it).

“Every marriage has what I call a relationship reservoir, or the stored-up emotional energy of the relationship,” says Tessina. And although these daily habits are all very simple things, they help fill that reservoir. When there’s a lot of positive energy there, you give each other a little pat on the butt or say, “I’m so glad I’m sharing my life with you,” and you’re storing it up. Then when the relationship is under stress, you’ll have the energy you need to get through.

We asked happy couples across the United States to tell us about marriage-strengthening solutions they’ve developed. Try your hand at incorporating a few into your daily life and maybe you can be as ridiculously, embarrassingly, revoltingly happily married as I am.

CONTINUED: How to be revoltingly happily married >
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