Love and Relationships articles:

Many people are concerned that their long-term relationship may lose it’s “sizzle” after awhile. Instead of worrying about it, use that energy to keep the “sizzle” going and hopefully grow and get stronger! Here are a few ways to spice up things and get the excitement back! 1. First, don’t let the sizzle die out! It’s a lot harder to get the flames going again than to fan the burning embers into a roaring blaze!

When two people meet, there is always some type of reaction. We are attracted or repelled. That sounds kind of harsh but the reality is that we evaluate people based on some simple criteria. In each encounter with someone new, we ask: What can I get out of this relationship that I want? What might I get out of this relationship that I don’t want? The moment we ask ourselves these questions we begin to set our expectations!

The word “No” has gotten a bad rap. People equate it with something that’s negative. Or pushing away, dislike, unacceptable, disagreeable... you can add your own descriptor. The fact is that learning when to tell your partner “No” can enhance your relationship by creating greater trust and respect. Here are a couple of instances when “No” would've done a whole lot of good.

As the year closes, the media is full of “Best of - Worst of” lists. This is also a good time to create a “Best of - Worst of” list with your partner. One of the things that people forget to do in a relationship is to review events that happened between them and get a better understanding of how it is that the events transpired as they did.  It’s important to have a goal for doing this to make things better in the upcoming year. When you both have the goal of improving the relationship, then you can talk candidly about events that didn't go so well.

During the holiday season, and as we get ready for the New Year, people are preparing to make resolutions for the New Year. Many of those people are also evaluating why their resolutions didn’t work from last year! Since this is a great time to create some resolutions that affect you and your partner, let’s make ones that will truly work!

The winter holidays can be hectic and if we don’t do some simple planning, conflict can creep into our relationships. We can feel pulled in many different directions. We need to make time to enjoy the time with our partners. Managing our time and people’s expectations becomes key during this month. There are a lot of activities going on and we may feel stressed at meeting other’s expectations.

You can make this holiday special for your partner or lover by giving a gift that really means something to them. At some point in a relationship we think we know the person because we have seen them make many choices or heard them say what for what they have a preference. From that we come to have an expectation of what our partner would like in a gift.

As the holiday season approaches we will have many opportunities to socialize with friends and family.  Our circle of friends encompasses the people we work with, play with, worship with, and with which we have many other encounters. A special group of people is the group that comprises our partner’s friends and family.

If you’re looking for a motivational movie, we cannot really offer up anything other than Seabiscuit as number one. Cutting across all divides, including gender and race (the hero is a horse), this heartwarming tale of an underdog making it big is Rocky with hooves. Charles Howard has a hard time during the Depression, with a wife and child to manage, alongside poor finances. He decides he really wants to get into the world of horse racing, and calls on trainer Tom to find him a horse that will win him some races.

Halloween is this month and most of us relate it to being scared. Fear is a natural response to situations and its purpose is to make us safe. In a close relationship, though, fear works against creating and keeping a deep connection with people. What scares us most about love? It’s the same things that bring up fear in other areas of our lives. There are two reasons fear comes up in us: