A Common Problem when Healing the Marriage

Couples who are trying to heal the marriage after an affair usually have so much problems and issues that they have to face.

There’s the affair itself, the trust and betrayal issues that come with the affair, and so many others.

One of the issues that couples have to address during this healing process is how their actions and words generate negativity within each other. This actually happens more than people think.

Most of the time, you may not see anything offending or bad about the things you say or do. But what you don’t know is that they may actually be affecting your husband or wife in a negative way. Your spouse could be insulted or hurt by something that will keep you from healing the marriage, and you may not even understand why that is so.

Here is an example:

During your affair, you made it a habit to your husband a present of some sort after every meeting you have with the other person, such as flowers or a new tie for example. Whether it is done consciously or unconsciously, this has become your practice. After your spouse discovers your affair, he or she realizes what those presents mean – a kind of guilty present for your affair. Your husband or wife will relate those presents with the betrayal of your affair from then on. So, even after you end your affair and begin to heal the marriage, whenever you give your husband or wife presents, he or she will look at a bouquet of flowers or a bottle of his favorite in a negative light.

That present, which is now a sign of your love and devotion to your spouse that you hope will help in healing the marriage, becomes a reminder of the pain and betrayal that he or she felt caused by your affair because he or she still sees it as the sign of guilt that it used to be.

What your spouse needs to do is to try to stop associating your giving of presents as a sign of guilt and accept them for what they are – as apologies. He or she needs to heal this part of him or her, and see how it is affecting your current relationship. Letting go of those feelings of betrayal, focusing on what you are trying to have now and accepting those presents will help more effectively in healing the marriage.

Of course, just forgetting about your affair won’t be easy at all for your husband or wife. What you can do, on your part, is to be a little more sensitive with regards to giving your spouse presents. If you know that he or she won’t have the response that you hope for, try to find other ways that you can express your love for him or her. Don’t force this kind of practice in your relationship because you know that it will only cause more harm than good. This way, you are helping each other heal the marriage.

Charging Neutral to Develop Trust After Infidelity

Trust after infidelity is very difficult to achieve, but what can you do to make things a little better?

Marriages that have been affected by extramarital affairs will always have a difficult time rebuilding the trust in that’s lost in the relationship. An important aspect that you will have to concentrate on fixing is the way you communicate with each other, especially when there are a lot of issues that need to be resolved which is most likely.

A great way to start rebuilding trust after infidelity this is to charge neutral. The act of charging neutral means that you become aware of how you communicate with your partner, and control it in a way where you will be able to convey what you want to say in a direct, honest and calm manner.

A lot of people have a hard time controlling what they say, especially in the heat of the moment. You can find a lot of different kinds of exercises that you can try to keep this from happening from books or even on other relationship blogs on the internet.

Charging neutral means that you keep yourself from reacting to whatever it is that your partner is saying or doing to you. To develop trust after infidelity, instead of yelling back, being defensive or sarcastic, making snide or rude comments, you remain calm in both your tone and attitude, and you say what it is that you have to say without creating more problems than you already have.

When you remain calm in addressing your problems, you will be able to bring up even your biggest problems out in the open for you to work on without causing a lot of drama. And the best part is, your partner will be able to see the control and the personal power that you have. He or she will be able to rely on this control and trust that you will be able to get through any issues you might have because of it. He or she will know that you will be able to stay calm no matter what, and that you will remain honest and truthful.

Simple Ways That You Can Build Trust In Your Marriage

Trust in another person is very hard to gain,  but once you have it, it can be the best thing in the world. So what are the easiest ways you can do build and develop the trust you and your partner have in each other and in your marriage?

Here are just some of the many things you can try:

1. It’s important for you, when it comes to building trust in your relationship, to continue to do or say the things that you did when your relationship began as it goes on. This continuity or consistency will be something that your partner will sort of depend on because he or she will be able to know or expect what you will do in a given situation.

2. Never make any sudden changes, especially in your individual or personal life, without letting your partner know about them. Changes that appear out of the blue especially in your behavior and actions tend to cause doubt and suspicion, and put a dent in your partner’s trust in you.

3. The saying “actions speak louder than words” is very apt in building trust in a relationship. Saying one thing but doing something different is one of the main causes of distrust in any relationship. It also sends the message that you are unreliable and dishonest, which aren’t good qualities in a partner.

4. Never underestimate your partner. Sometimes, when you deal with crises or problems in your life, you usually keep it from your partner because you want to “protect” him or her from it, but this usually backfires. What you see as “protection” usually translates as mistrust to your partner, like you think that he or she is incapable of handling whatever it is that you are going through.

5. Keeping things from your partner, whatever those things may be, is something that should be done with plenty of caution. Most people in relationships believe that everything should be shared between the couple, that there shouldn’t be any secrets, and any information left out is something to be suspicious of.

6. People believe that the only way to nourish or nurture a relationship is to provide your partner’s needs continually, but this is only true to a certain level. Just as it is important for you to provide your partner’s needs, it is also important that your partner provides yours. So make sure that you let your partner know what those needs are. Building trust means knowing that both of you will be there to provide what the other needs.

7. Allow yourself time for self-discovery and reflection. Knowing yourself well is just as important as knowing your partner. Giving yourself time to learn who you truly are will allow you to discover things that you probably never knew. And all the things you find out about yourself, you can share with your partner so that he or she too can know more about you.

8. Allow yourself to say no. There are a lot of people who will ask a lot of things from you, even your partner. Saying no doesn’t always mean that you don’t want to help or that you are a bad person. Saying no means that you are choosing to do something for yourself rather than for another person.

9. Being able to charge neutral in cases of infidelity will benefit you greatly in the long run. Charging neutral means that you keep being consistent in your communication with your partner, you tell him or her what you’re feeling about a certain situation honestly and directly, and you don’t react by bursting whenever you hear something you don’t like or don’t agree with.

10. Do not stray away from a little conflict in your relationship. Avoiding confronting your problems or concerns tend to lead to resentment and is never good for relationships. Although fights are always ugly, sometimes they are necessary for the relationship to be able to function properly.