It Is the Relationship Journey That Counts

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www.nathaliehimmelrich.com
Your Relationship Journey counts

Today in a client’ session I heard myself say: A happy relationship with your partner might be your goal but it is not the purpose of (relationship) life. Let me explain.

The journey that counts

The famous quote “It’s not the destination but the journey that counts” leaves some questions unanswered:

  • What is on the journey?
  • What specifically counts as part of the journey
  • What does it really mean?

Quotes are nice but often leave a lot to personal interpretation. Let’s have a look at that quote in relation to your relationship life.

Relationship struggles

Whether intimate, casual or relationships with siblings, parents, friends, colleagues, or employers – relationship are seldom easy. Even the best of friends struggle with each other, have misunderstandings or fights.

This is normal and to be expected.

Relationships, and specifically the closer they are, have the potential within themselves to trigger and bring up any unresolved issues.

On your journey with relationship you will encounter struggles, sooner or later, if you are not just leaving any relationship before it gets close enough.[Tweet “Relationship challenges are to be expected”] [Read more…] about It Is the Relationship Journey That Counts

Back by Popular Demand: Love Language Part 4 – Acts of Service

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Do you know what your partner could use help with?
Do you know what your partner could use help with?

Actions like cooking a meal, setting a table, washing dishes, vacuuming, taking out the garbage, moving the grass, changing the cat’s litter tray, etc are all acts of service. They require thought, planning, time, effort, and energy. If done with a positive spirit, they are indeed expressions of love.

Within every language, there are many dialects. If you have a spouse with Acts of Service as her primary love language, find the specific things she would like to you help her with by asking her. If you are the person with that specific love language, make a list for your spouse with the things that would help you most.

Remember: love is always freely given. Love cannot be demanded. Requests give direction to love, but demands stop the flow of love.[Tweet “Find the specific things your partner might need help with”] [Read more…] about Back by Popular Demand: Love Language Part 4 – Acts of Service

Surviving Child Loss As a Couple

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Surviving Loss as a Couple www.reachforthesky.com.auThe loss of a child is without any doubt one of the most challenging experiences I have gone through in my life both personally and in my relationship.

The most important aspect I have found through my survey of more than a hundred people and through interviewing parents one-on-one are:

  • Understanding different ways of grieving
  • Accepting the differences
  • Allowing each other time to grieve.

The 5 steps to survive your loss as a couple

Grief and death are topics that make a lot of people uncomfortable. Since you and I have both experienced the loss of a child, we know this from personal experience. You as a couple have a common source for your experience of loss. Nonetheless, even though the source may be the same, the experience itself can be very different. When, where, and how the experience differs is the point at which you need to keep working with each other to stay connected.[Tweet “What do you really know about your partner’s way of grieving?”] [Read more…] about Surviving Child Loss As a Couple

Back by Popular Demand Series: Love Language Part 3 – Receiving Gifts

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gift
Is it gifts you are craving as displays of love?

A gift is something that you can hold in your hand and say, “Look, he was thinking of me,” or “She remembered me.” You must be thinking of someone to give a gift. The gift itself is a symbol of that thought. It doesn’t matter if it costs money.

Gifts need not to expensive, nor must they be given weekly. But for some individuals, their worth has nothing to do with monetary value and everything to do with love.

Within every language, there are many dialects. Here below you will find just a few but in the end you need to understand your spouse’s dialect.[Tweet “Remember to learn your spouse’s dialect. It might be ‘diamonds’…”]

Purchased Gifts:

Anything you can imagine, [Read more…] about Back by Popular Demand Series: Love Language Part 3 – Receiving Gifts

10 Things About Helping Children Through Grief

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Supporting-Children-Through-Grief
Supporting Children Through Grief

Children are affected by the loss of a loved one, just as we adults are. Depending on their age and maturity, they will have different needs and show various symptoms. Siblings might respond in a similar manner or some seemingly not as much.

1. Support according to age and maturity

All children are affected, how and if they show it can be quite different. Young toddlers might not consciously know what’s going on, nor cognitively understand death, but they respond to the parents’ emotional state. Teenagers understand and often deal with death in their own personal way. Choose support for your child according to their personal needs, age and maturity.[Tweet “Why Everyone Wins When You Put Your Oxygen Mask on First”]

[Read more…] about 10 Things About Helping Children Through Grief