Latest / Stacked Intent: Your Guide to Authentic, Intentional Living / How to Strengthen Your Romantic Relationship Through Connection and Intentional Habits

Transcript

How to Strengthen Your Romantic Relationship Through Connection and Intentional Habits · Stacked Intent: Your Guide to Authentic, Intentional Living

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Hello, my name is Becca Stackhouse Morrison, and I am ready for you to tune in each episode to hear ways to become you.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: Looking at ways you can be your authentic and intentional self, you'll finish each episode motivated to live life more authentically.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_00: I learned how to be truly me through relationships, chronic disease, finances, and taking each journey along the way.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: Talk about the real aspects of life?
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: Of course.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: Relationships, finance, nutrition, hardships, exercise are all topics that we will discuss.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: Pull up a seat, drive safely down the road, or get into that workout groove to be challenged, motivated, and encouraged to be you.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: This is the Stacked Intent Podcast.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Stacked Intent.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: Today you're gonna take away from our discussion of tips of how you can intentionally stack your life in building your couple partner relationship.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So let's get started, and today we're just gonna cover two topics and we're gonna talk about ways to build your relationships and some conversations in your relationship that you might want to have if you haven't already had them.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: So, topic one, ways to build your relationship.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: There are lots of ways that we can do this.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: We can do it from extravagant to simple.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, both are important to have the variation of simple but extravagant.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So look at your calendars together.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Plan a weekend or a short vacation with your partner.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: This can give you and your partner something to be excited to look forward to.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: It can be something that you guys can plan ahead together of the time, and this can give you time to discuss and deliberate what exactly you want to do on that trip.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: So plan it.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_00: So my husband and I a couple of months ago went to Arizona for his niece's wedding, but we decided to turn it into a little bit of an adventure as well.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: So we spent months budgeting and planning to be able to go and enjoy the areas in Arizona we're in.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we got to go to the Grand Canyon, which the night before the Grand Canyon, we went camping out in the middle of nowhere.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: Needless to say, I did not sleep that great, but it was still such a fun adventure.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: And then from there, we also got to go to Horseshoe Bend, which let me tell you, if you have never been to Horseshoe Bend, I highly recommend planning that trip.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: But in all of this, my husband and I got to plan this trip together and really get excited about the adventure that we were gonna get to spend some time together and the areas that we got to go choose and visit.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And best part of it, we had discussed and deliberated enough of it that we had it laid out in our budget and it wasn't a budget hitter because of if you have heard on the financial side, you're looking at a travel line budget.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: So you're able to do some of these great adventures and trips, but not only these big trips are what you want to look for.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: This doesn't mean that you shouldn't also spend some kind of quality time together that may be in the day or might be during the week.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: So another one for some time together that my husband and I do is usually once a month, I go meet him for a lunch date.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we go to a restaurant right up the street from his work and we go have a lunch date so that it's a conscious decision of planning something for some quality time together.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_00: And that's important.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_00: So in building a relationship or maintaining your relationship, you want to make sure that you plan some kind of activities to spend together.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: Another would be paying compliments to your partner as making that a habit to appreciate their personality or the little things that they are doing for you each day.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: And remember, if you're doing that for your partner and they're doing it for you, you're both gonna be filling each other's cups up and you're both gonna be giving into the relationship.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: You might need to go back to the beginning sometimes of a why your relationship began.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So, what is a reason that you fell in love with your partner in the first place?
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: What is a compliment that you can consciously make as an effort of hey, you look great today.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: I'm proud of your efforts today.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: Keep it up, or thanks for making my lunch.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for thinking about me.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_00: You can even do these compliments by calling them in the middle of the day, setting an alarm clock that goes off on their phone, or sticking a sticky note to their mirror, somewhere that they'll see the compliment.
• 5:35
  SPEAKER_00: Do it in different ways.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: Find the way that works best for your partner's love.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Another is pick a TV show that has a weekly release or has tons of seasons out, and this can be something that gives you an episode to look forward to watching each week.
• 6:00
  SPEAKER_00: So, Monday nights, what's a show that you guys could sit down together and for 45 minutes to an hour sit there and enjoy, laugh, whatever you need it to do together.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: It is important that you build and you maintain your relationship so that you can maintain an emotional connection to each other.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because in the best of times and in the harder times, you need to have an emotional connection to your partner to be able to sustain a healthy relationship.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: What about our topic number two?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: Have conversations in your relationship.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Make sure that you are creating a safe place for you and your partner so that you can be open and you can be honest throughout conversations that you guys have.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: There are conversations that in all relationships, but especially in our partner relationships, we can find to be challenging.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_00: Those can be topics like money, sex, in-loss, parenting, defining what boundaries are around opposite sex, household chores are some of those top five conversations that can happen that give us challenging conversations.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_00: So creating that open and honest dialect is gonna definitely help in bringing your relationship to having some conversations.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: Communication brings us together and it helps us to build better chemistry and love as our years go by.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: But a lot of times this only comes from a conscious effort on both parties' sides.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: The conversation you have, they play a strong role in determining how happy, how fun, and how strong the relationship that you and your partner are gonna have throughout the lifespan of that relationship.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: One tip would be to take 10 minutes to talk about each other's day.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Give each other like 10 minutes of how really was your day?
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: How really did it go?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: What happened today at work?
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Tell me all the stories.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's taking that time to set that time aside and have that conscious effort.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_00: When my husband and I started becoming friends, we sat outside of our gym for hours, some nights, just talking.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: And sometimes it was just talking about our days.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: And this was solely built as friends, and we found as our relationship grew that that 10 minutes a day out on the back porch became a very vital, important aspect.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_00: So I encourage you to find 10 minutes in your evening that you and your partner are able to have uninterrupted conversation, whether that be before you get in bed or that's the first 10 minutes of you spending in bed.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: And let me tell you, if you need some help on these conversations or need them to be things that you wouldn't think of, I would highly recommend going to get the Let's Get Deep Questions for Couples card game.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_00: And this card game has icebreakers in it, it has um deep, and then it has deeper comp um questions.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_00: And these questions are all over the board, they are from basic things that you and your partner have probably talked about to questions that you guys might not know.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_00: It may just reiterate something you know or teach you something new about your partner.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have loved having this, and typically we take three of them a night, and they provide conversation sometimes, and they can give you conversations that you might not think to have, and they have been so much fun.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_00: The other cards that are fun that we've got they are also the adventure challenge connection cards.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a set that's just a general couples edition, and that set is so much fun of the same kind of thing.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you questions that you guys may have already had conversations about, or it gives you a new place for some new conversations, and we have found those to be a great way to kind of wind down a night or be in the car for hours and traveling.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_00: It gives you some fun ways to talk.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: Another is take a time to pause and talk about the worries.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, this could come from you, it could be what's happening or how you are supporting your relationship growth.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_00: So just make sure that you're looking at the happy and the bright, but you also listen to the worries of your partner as well.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So talk about improvements, the flaws and ways to improve your relationship.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: This takes that being honest and being vulnerable with each other, but doing it in a way that isn't offensive or hurtful, making sure that you find soft words and finding time in the space, making sure that your partner's in the right space when you go to give a feedback.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: One of the other biggest ways to start a conversation is when your partner is coming to you.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: Are they coming to you and just want you to listen to what they have to say?
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or are they coming to you and they are wanting a solution?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_00: If you start your conversations off like this, a lot of times it's gonna help your conversation not head into an argument side.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I would challenge you just to be present.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: And in all of this, one of the biggest things is to make sure that you're actively listening.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And so when you're actively listening, it is when you are listening with no intentions of a specific direct response.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: So you are listening to what your partner has to say without already knowing in your head what you're going to respond.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: So it's giving your partner that space to speak and your brain the space to hear what they have to say.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: So, with that, here is my challenge in today.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_00: So you are intentionally building your couple relationship through ways of building your relationship and conversations.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_00: So the challenge to you is go plan 10 minutes.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: 10 minutes a day, when are you gonna do it with your partner and how are you gonna do it?
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: How are you gonna be intentional about the 10 minutes a day that you are spending with your partner?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you for joining today's episode of Stacked Intent, and I look forward to having you join me on next week's episode.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: That brings us to the end of this episode of Stacked Intent.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you love this episode as much as I did, head on over and rate and subscribe so you will never miss an episode.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: New episodes are gonna be dropped on Thursdays.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: Until then, this is Becca, and don't forget, enrich your life by being intentional.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: This podcast was created, produced, recorded, and edited by Staffed Intent.