Marriage is one of life’s most rewarding relationships, but it is never a walk in the park.
Opposing the bed of roses that is projected in the media, marriages usually require effort, patience, and a willingness to grow together.
Both partners must be committed to making the marriage work with the same level of energy and willingness.
Love is set at the foundation of every healthy marriage.
But love alone is never enough.
There must be willingness, intentionality, and consistency to make it work.
Just as healthy habits improve one’s physical well-being, certain “super habits” also significantly enhance the quality of one’s marriage.
Let’s consider 8 of these habits.
8 Super Habits That Make Your Marriage Better
1. Keeping the Romance Alive
After couples have been together for a while, they begin to lose their spark and passion in the marriage.
Especially when children begin to come into the mix.
Keeping the romance in your relationship alive is very important if you want to enjoy your marriage.
Both parties must put in the right amount of intentionality into making sure that the fire in their marriage continues to burn.
The good thing about this is that it doesn’t require grand gestures or expensive gifts; sometimes, the smallest acts of love can have the biggest impact.
So, once in a while, surprise your partner with a handwritten note, plan a spontaneous outing, or simply tell them how much you love them out of the blue.
When you make an effort to keep the romance alive, you show that you value your relationship and are willing to nurture it.
2. Expressing Gratitude Regularly
It’s easy to take your partner for granted, especially when you’ve been together for a long time.
But expressing gratitude regularly is a powerful habit that can transform your marriage.
It may seem like a minute thing that does not count, but it can either make or break your marriage.
Make it a point to express gratitude to your spouse for every single thing they do.
Thank them for the big things and the tiny little things.
Thank them for the ones you requested and for the ones they did out of sheer thoughtfulness.
Acknowledging these acts of love and service strengthens your bond and goes a long way in making your partner feel valued and appreciated.
3. Spending time Quality Time Together
How often do you spend quality time with your spouse?
I mean intentional quality time.
In our busy lives, it’s easy for time with your partner to take a backseat.
With all the endless responsibilities that come with work, kids, and every other thing.
And the story is usually, “my spouse understands.”
Of course, they’ll understand, but are they supposed to understand the fact that you can’t spend time together?
It won’t be too long before you realize that you both have become strangers to each other even when you’re staying in the same house.
Spending time with your spouse doesn’t mean you have to spend every waking moment together, but you must carve out quality time for each other just to make a huge difference.
It doesn’t really matter whether your quality time together is grand or little; the point is that you get to do it regularly, stay close with your spouse, and reinforce the importance of your marriage.
4. Being Patience and Understanding
Marriage will try you and break you in every way possible.
You’ll face the real-life choice of loving a person who constantly makes you angry, and you already know what to do if you want to keep your marriage.
Every marriage faces these kinds of challenges and rough patches, but you must decide how you want to handle these moments.
When you allow patience and understanding to rule in your marriage, it is easier to handle these difficult times without letting them damage your relationship.
When a situation comes up to make you angry or frustrated, take a step back and breathe.
Then, try to understand your partner’s perspective.
Sometimes, we misinterpret and misunderstand things.
Patience lets you take time to consider the situation and be clear of all misunderstandings.
It also allows you to give your partner the grace to be human, to make mistakes, and to grow.
5. Maintaining Physical Affection
How can couples build and maintain intimacy in their marriage without physical affection?
Except one partner is not physically present with the other (and this is usually a temporary thing.)
Physical affection is a very important part of maintaining intimacy in a marriage.
It doesn’t have to be a public display of affection if you both are reserved people.
But simple acts like holding hands, hugging, kissing, or even just sitting close to each other on the couch are enough to keep the passion alive and the connection strong in your marriage.
Some people get so busy with other things that they allow showing affection in their marriage to take a backseat.
If you don’t show affection to your spouse, you’re making room for dissatisfaction and eventually resentment in your marriage.
Meanwhile, regularly showing affection helps to maintain a sense of closeness and reinforce your love for each other.
It’s a powerful non-verbal way of saying, “I love you, and I’m here for you.”
6. Supporting Each Other’s Personal Growth
When you get married, you become one with your partner.
What this means is that whatever happens to them affects you in one way or another – directly or indirectly.
So, when you support your spouse’s growth and continuous improvement, you’re indirectly supporting your own growth and the growth of the marriage.
You should not lose your individuality because you are building a strong marriage; rather, it should be a place where both partners support each other’s personal growth.
When you encourage each other to grow, it is easier for you both to reach your individual goals and pursuits.
You also create a relationship that evolves and becomes stronger over time.
Celebrate each other’s achievements and be each other’s no.1 cheerleader.
7. Resolving Conflicts Respectfully
It doesn’t matter how compatible you are with your partner or how much you both understand each other; there’s bound to be misunderstanding and conflict occasionally.
In my opinion, having conflict in your relationship or marriage is not an issue.
The issue is in your ability (or inability) to handle and resolve conflicts.
The way you handle conflicts can either make or break your marriage.
And that’s why couples must develop the habit of resolving conflicts respectfully.
Beyond this, it helps if there’s a laid down conflict resolution mechanism in the marriage that works for you both in the face of challenges.
Handling conflicts respectfully means avoiding hurtful language, not resorting to yelling or name-calling, and focusing on finding a resolution rather than proving a point.
When disagreements arise, approach them with a mindset of cooperation rather than competition.
It’s not about who’s right or wrong but how you can work together to overcome the issue.
8. Sharing Responsibilities Equally
One of the most common sources of tension in marriages is the division of household responsibilities.
When a particular responsibility is given to only one person in the home, they soon become overwhelmed.
However, when you both share all the responsibilities in the home, it creates an atmosphere of support and teamwork.
Each partner can be rest assured that they are not carrying a burden alone.
It also prevents resentment from springing up in the home.
Sharing responsibilities equally doesn’t mean everything has to be split 50/50 all the time, but there should be a fair and agreed-upon division of labor based on each person’s ability.
The goal is to ensure that one person is not bearing any burden alone.
Building a strong marriage isn’t about grand gestures or perfect harmony;
It is truly the small, everyday habits that keep you connected, respectful, and deeply in love in marriage.
Those consistent, loving efforts that you keep are what make all the difference.
So take a moment today to reflect on these habits and consider how you can start incorporating them into your marriage.
The journey of a lifetime begins with a single step, and every step you take together makes your marriage better, stronger, and more fulfilling.