You probably know an important key to having a successful, happy, and lasting marriage is…
Building and maintaining a healthy marriage.
But where do you start? In this article we share our healthy marriage tips in the hopes it can help your marriage thrive.
As married person, you must listen, read, learn, and practice the healthy marriage tips and advice you receive.
Especially from couples who have healthy and successful marriages.
And this should be a no-brainer if you truly want know how to have a healthy marriage.
So what does a healthy marriage look like?
What makes a healthy marriage?
Here is the response two of our awesome readers had to say about things present in healthy marriages:
Ashley R. : Patience, and passion.
All marriages are different right?
Every relationship or marriage is unique.
There are things you like, and things you don’t like about every relationship.
This is actually what helped shaped my list for what I wanted in my future husband before meeting Marcus.
Most of the relationships around me had pros and cons. I liked how involved this person was, but not how over-involved the other person was.
One example of this was a habit that certain family members had with their spouse. They would go behind their spouse’s back to do things, or say things like, “don’t tell my husband/wife about this”.
As I grew older and saw that this created a lack of honesty and trust in marriage, I knew I didn’t want this for my marriage. – Ash
What is a healthy marriage?
Even though every marriage is different, healthy marriages have these signs or characteristics in common.
Here are the key signs of a healthy marriage:
1) Honesty: There are no secrets in a healthy marriage.
2) Trust: Honesty is the basis for trust. Trust is earned, it is never a right.
3) Respect: In a healthy marriage, each spouse respects the other spouse, even though they disagree.
This is displayed in your tone, in the way you respond, your attitude, and your ability to hold your spouse’s opinion higher than others (the exception is when they are wrong, morally, or ethically).
This includes respecting their boundaries within and around your marriage.
4) Patience: This ties in with respect.
5) Quality sex: Not talking about quantity here, as long as you both are happy with how often, the quality is what matters.
The closeness, the intimacy, and the connection.
6) Friendship. Connecting and spending time with each other: Knowing on a deeper level. This comes with intentionality, time, and effort.
You must cultivate your marriage relationship from the planting of the seed to the bloom.
Connecting with your spouse daily must be a priority.
7) Priorities are straight: Spouse comes before work, friends, extended family, hobbies, and all that extra stuff.
8) Finances are in order. Both spouse’s share responsibility and know they are on the same page.
We usually have a financial checkup every quarter to see how we are doing, as well as budgeting every month together.
9) They can communicate effectively and can agree to disagree.
You both know that being married, becoming one, doesn’t mean they have to share the same world view and opinion about everything.
They are still their own independent person, and need to remain so to have a healthy marriage.
10) Putting each other first. In a healthy marriage, both spouses do this, and it’s a win win with both partners giving 100%.
11) Seeing each other as equals, no one is above the other.
12) Grow together as a couple while the marriage evolves. This goes hand in hand with connecting. Better yourself and you better your marriage.
13) Forgive with grace when either does wrong. Believe they have the best intentions towards you, and show them the same chance to make it better that you would like in that situation.
14) Fight fair. Married couples have disagreements.
If a couple never disagrees about anything, I would be worried that they are not being as open and honest about everything with each other.
15) Boundaries. Healthy married couples have boundaries both within and around their marriage.
Standing up for yourself to your spouse is healthy. You don’t have to let hurtful and harmful behavior slide.
Likewise, to protect your marriage from outside forces, healthy marriages set up boundaries to protect the sacred relationship.
16) Unity: They are working together to achieve their marriage goals and committed to each other.
Did you notice that love wasn’t one of the things listed?
It’s because if all the above things are present, than love abounds. Love is at the heart of all the things mentioned above.
I believe if a married person is not in a healthy and happy marriage, it limits their ability to impact other peoples lives.
In most scenarios, it makes their life more difficult and not enjoyable.
After observing both healthy and unhealthy marriages, an unhealthy marriage or relationship definitely does not bring out the best in a married person.
Hence, an important reason for me to intentionally build a healthy marriage with Ash.
More importantly, she also believes in building a healthy marriage. And its a win win. – Marcus
Do you want to have, and maintain a healthy marriage?
I bet you do.
The truth and reality is that it takes hard work, intentionality, and practice to not just have, but also maintain a healthy marriage.
Even after building a healthy marriage, you still need to nurture your marriage to keep it healthy.
To make it easier, we have provided the list below to help you and your spouse to have, and maintain a healthy marriage.
We implement them all the time because they are simple to implement, and have helped us to maintain a healthy marriage.
Here are 15 healthy marriage tips on how to have a healthy marriage:
1. Compliment each other.
2. Learn to fight fair and forgive each other.
3. Exercise together even if its just a weekly walk down the road.
4. Don’t miss the little things.
5. Show appreciation to each other.
6. Show your love for each other in front of the kids; this lets them know mom and dad love each other, letting them feel secure while showing them what to expect from their future spouse.
7. Connect! You have to continually maintain your marriage just like you maintain a garden.
8. Focus on what makes you two a happy married couple.
9. See the best in each other, and be supportive of each others goals, ideas, career etc. while also giving healthy critiques.
10. Be willing to compromise and learn how to communicate with each other.
11. Solve your problems together.
12. Agree on your finances, know where your money is going.
13. Improve yourself and your marriage by great marriage books, listening to marriage podcasts etc.
14. Create boundaries.
15. Finally, have fun together. All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.
Pick at least 7 of these healthy marriage tips and implement them today. You will be on your way to having a healthy marriage.
Every one in society benefits when a married couple builds and maintains a healthy marriage.
Can you have a healthy marriage?
Without the presence of all the above healthy marriage tips?
Well, we are not perfect beings. But we must strive every day to improve ourselves on these subjects.
It won’t happen overnight. But as you practice and hone these skills, you’ll be working towards creating the happy and healthy marriage you both desire.
Kindly share these healthy marriage tips with newlyweds or couples who are about to get married.
It will certainly help them during their first few years of marriage.
“To have a successful marriage, you need a healthy marriage” – Unknown
Your turn:
Do you have a healthy marriage?
How will you build, and keep your marriage healthy?
What other healthy marriage tips or advice can you share with us?
Image courtesy Digitalart /FreeDigitalPhotos.net
