Every new, expectant, and experienced parent only wants what’s best for their children. In order to accomplish this goal, the parents must be willing to work together. This means learning how to be an effective team, to support each other through the ups and downs of raising children (and life in general), and how to encourage each other to be the very best versions of yourself. Essentially, if you want your children to have a solid foundation in life, you must learn how to create a healthy and uplifting relationship for your kids to model after.
Words of Encouragement
Whether life is pretty good or you’re presently going through a personal struggle, your words can be instrumental in showing love and support to your spouse. Statements like, “I believe in you”, “You inspire me”, and “I’m proud of you can be all it takes to encourage your spouse to be the best they can every day. They can also be the very words that help to get them out of a rut like addiction, mental illness, or the loss of a loved one.
Support Through Action
Words are great and can be just the boost your partner needs to accomplish their life goals. However, that is not the only form of support you should be showing your spouse. They also need to see your support in the form of action. If your significant other has a dream business idea, for instance, you can take action by giving them money to invest in it, pitching in with household chores while they dedicate extra hours to that dream, or offering your skills and experience to help push their idea forward. The same type of supportive action can be shown by learning more about a drug rehab in Colorado, whether an inpatient or outpatient program (or whichever location is most convenient), and providing this advice to a spouse who is struggling with addiction.
Self-Care
Here’s one supportive measure that many adults overlook when they’ve been together for years – self-care. Your appearance, physical, and mental health are all part of encouraging your spouse to do better daily. Remember, you are a team when one team member takes the time to care for themselves, they’re saying to their spouse that the relationship is worth being happy and healthy. Keep a clean appearance, eat right, get sleep, have a healthy social life, and stay on top of your physical and emotional well-being. When your partner sees you at your best, they will be pushed to want to emulate that in themselves.
Carry Your Own Baggage
Many adults have gone through complicated life experiences that have altered or hindered their ability to properly love or be in a healthy relationship. They carry this “emotional baggage” around with them and unknowingly toss it to their partner to hold (along with their own baggage). After a while, the weight of all the baggage leads your spouse to feel resentment or overwhelmed, reducing the amount of time and energy they have to focus on improving themselves.
Though your spouse is your helpmate, your past experiences and the emotional scarring that came from it, are yours and yours alone to carry. Deal with your past and the issues you’ve carried with you and learn how to cope with those emotions and experiences in a positive way. Seeing you emotionally healthy and actively working towards your personal problems will encourage your spouse to want to do the same.
You and your spouse are your children’s first examples of who they are supposed to be as adults, and how they should navigate life. You can’t expect them to accomplish this if you aren’t working together as a unit to show them. Have a talk with your spouse and discuss the importance of supporting, encouraging, and motivating each other to be the best versions of yourselves and how this process will strengthen your family.
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