Welcome back. We’ve been talking about the differences between luggage and baggage, as metaphors for what you bring into your marriage. Refresher course: luggage would be good listening skills, kindness, patience and respect, while ‘baggage’ is a rotten temper, meanness, being overly critical, and nagging.   As we pointed out in the previous article, […]

  Some people will tell you that the difference between luggage and baggage is a cultural one – the British take luggage on their holidays, while Americans on vacation collect their bags at the baggage claim. And they’d be right. But for this article we’re addressing a more metaphorical type of carry-on – the kind […]

  Welcome back and thanks for joining us again. As we explained in the previous article, fighting is a relatively normal part of life for couples. The catch isn’t learning how not to fight, it’s learning how to fight in a way that strengthens your relationship and resolves problems. So picking up where we left […]

  Wait , what? Fight the good fight? Yes, that’s right – the good fight. And by that we don’t mean do more charity work or spread random acts of kindness (although those are always a good idea!) What we’re talking about is literally “good” fighting – fighting in a way that resolves conflict, strengthens […]

  He’s a neatnik, but she’s a slob. Or she’s a lover of Victorian antiquities, and he’s obsessed with mid-century modern. Or perhaps she’s a night owl and a light sleeper, while he’s an early riser who can’t keep the volume down. For many people, divorce becomes the only option when they discover that they […]

  Welcome back and thanks for sticking with us for this discussion on how your extended family can affect your relationships (sometimes badly!) For those of you just joining us, we recommend that you take a few minutes to get caught up. However, if you’ve been with us from the start, we’ll dive right in […]

  Thanks for joining us again for this discussion on the chemistry of love. So far we’ve established that love is chemical in nature, and that we’re subject to the chemical whims of our brains. So in the face of such complex chemical motivations for behavior and changing emotions, what can a person do to […]

  Everybody knows that when you fall in love, especially when you’re young, your brain becomes a chemical soup akin to the chaotic primordial cocktail of life. But what happens later, when the chemistry slowly changes? And how do we maintain love, when it seems the chemicals in our brains appear to be working against […]