I Want To Save My Marriage What Am I Doing Wrong
I really want to save my marriage, but nothing I try seems to work!â If that sounds like the thoughts youâve been having lately, donât worry, youâre not alone. Whether itâs due to well meaning bad advice or just reacting on emotion, there are thousands of us whoâve made mistakes that just end up pushing our partners farther away. Once you have an idea of where you might be going wrong, though, you have a much better chance of healing your marriage.
Pressuring your spouse!
Itâs all too easy to do when youâre stressed out, but threatening or guilting rarely help matters. One of the most common forms of pressure is begging. You may not get down on your knees and wail, but if youâre pleading, crying, telling your spouse you canât live without them or that theyâll destroy the kidsâ lives, it still amounts to emotional blackmail.
Another thing to avoid is trying to pressure your spouse into counseling. Instead of pushing, appeal to logic. For instance, you might say something like âConsidering all the time weâve invested in each other, isnât it worth a few hours of counseling to save that?
Apologizing too much!
Thereâs nothing wrong with apologizing for mistakes you know you made, especially when you have a plan to help you keep from making them again. The problem comes in when you apologize for things you didnât even do. It sounds insincere at best and mocking at worse. It also makes you look desperate, which is hardly attractive.
More importantly, it doesnât solve anything. Accept your responsibility for 50% of the problems and acknowledge that you have some issues you need to work out together, but if you mean it when you say, âI want to save my marriage,â donât take more than your fair share of the blame.
Jumping to conclusions!
Even if youâve lived with your spouse for decades and think you can read them like a book, you cannot read their mind. Donât assume you know how your spouse feels and why they feel that way. After all, itâs possible your spouse has been burying certain emotions about your relationship or unrelated events in the past that are interfering with the present.
Dishonesty!
Needless to say, lies do nothing to build emotional intimacy. Whether youâre hiding your feelings, facts about important events in your past, or your financial details, it all goes to drive a wedge between and your spouse. Iâm not talking about those little white lies like âNo, honey, I donât think youâve put on weight.â Thereâs plenty of room for those. What I mean is something that has an effect on the relationship beyond the next 30 seconds like lying about your needs in the bedroom or for time to yourself.
Waiting and hoping!
This is probably the biggest mistake of them all, yet itâs also the easiest to fix. So many people wait and hope things will work themselves out eventually. In the meantime, you and your partner are growing farther apart and any resentment only grows deeper. Marital problems donât solve themselves anymore than they cause themselves. To save a marriage thatâs headed for divorce, you need to take concrete action now.
If youâve heard yourself say âI want to save my marriage!â a few too many times, itâs very possible youâre making some of the mistakes most couples make when their marriage hits a rough patch.
Themocracy