5 Priceless Lessons I Learned After 5+ Years of Marriage

1. Communicate So Much You Feel Like You’re Sharing Too Much.

1.1. Communicating and sharing more is almost always a good idea — even when you think you’ve done enough.

1.2. A great marriage always has a ton of communication.

1.3. Talk even when you feel like you’ve talked enough — your spouse probably wants more.

2. If You Don’t Know What To Do, Do the Dishes/Trash/Laundry

2.1. When you get mad, angry, annoyed, impatient, upset:

2.1.1. Go to the dishes.

2.1.2. Take the dog for a walk.

2.1.3. Finish the laundry.

2.1.4. Clean the toilet.

2.1.5. Take out the trash.

2.1.6. Be of service.

2.2. This is an excellent outlet for any negativity — serving your spouse.

2.3. Helping around the house is great for them (they’ll appreciate it), but also great for you.

2.4. Learn how to be a spouse who’s angry and upset and still loves your spouse through actions

3. Be Overly-Generous With Praise, Affection, and Affirmations

3.1. People are a lot like flowers — we’re sensitive, fragile, and need a lot of tender love and care to grow.

3.2. If you starve us, trample us, or ignore us, we start to die.

3.3. A lot of people think they’re already generous with praise and affection, but you could probably do more.

3.4. It’s hard to give your spouse too much praise, affection, or affirmation.

4. Buy Your Spouse a Lot of Gifts

4.1. Over-do the gifts.

4.2. Because overdoing it to you probably feels like normal to them.

4.3. We have a tendency to neglect those we love — avoid that by overdoing things.

5. Know Your (and Your Spouse’s) Love Language

5.1. Read Gary Chapman’s best-selling book The 5 Love Languages

5.2. Everyone wants to love and be loved in about 5 certain ways:

5.2.1. Quality Time

5.2.2. Gift-giving

5.2.3. Acts of Service

5.2.4. Physical Touch

5.2.5. Words of Affirmation

5.3. Once you learn your spouses love language, you’ll be able to love them the way they want to be loved.