The Joyful Couple: A Guide to Making Joyful Love Relationship


Book Description

The essence of the book lies in its emphasis on joy as the cornerstone of a successful and meaningful relationship. It takes readers on a journey through various aspects of a couple's life, offering practical strategies and valuable insights to infuse joy into every facet of their connection. The book begins by addressing the foundations of a joyful relationship, exploring effective communication, understanding each other's needs, and building a strong emotional connection. It provides actionable advice on how to navigate conflicts and challenges while preserving the joy that initially brought the couple together. One of the strengths of the book is its exploration of shared experiences and activities that contribute to the overall happiness of a couple. From creating meaningful rituals and traditions to exploring new adventures together, the book offers a wealth of ideas to keep the joy alive and thriving.




Composing a Life


Book Description

This reissue of Bateson's treatise on the improvisational lives of five extraordinary women uses their personal stories to delve into the creative potential of the complex lives of today, where ambitions are constantly refocused on new goals and possibilities.




The 4 Habits of Joy-Filled Marriages


Book Description

What separates happy marriages from miserable ones? Surprisingly, it’s not healthy communication. It’s not conflict resolution skills. It’s actually the size of the marriage’s joy gap . Joy Gap/joi gap/ (n.)-1. The length of time between moments of shared joy When the joy gap gets bigger, problems are more likely to overwhelm you, resentment creeps in, and you start to feel distant and alone in your marriage. When the joy gap is smaller, you regularly feel connected and happy, problems feel manageable, and your marriage becomes a reliable source of joy. But how do you ensure that you’re experiencing joy regularly? Marcus Warner and Chris Coursey have studied relationships (and neuroscience) and discovered four habits that keep joy regular and problems small. Some couples do them naturally, but anyone can learn. That’s why each chapter includes 15-minute exercises that boost joy and re-train your brain to make joy your default setting. You’ll learn new skills including how to: return to joy more quickly after disconnection create stronger bonds and elongate times of happiness boost your enjoyment of physical and emotional intimacy Find out what your marriage looks like after a little work and a whole lot of joy.




Joy in the Morning


Book Description

From Betty Smith, author of the beloved American classic A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, comes an unsentimental yet radiant and powerfully uplifting tale of young love and marriage. In 1927, in Brooklyn, New York, Carl Brown and Annie McGairy meet and fall in love. Though only eighteen, Annie travels alone halfway across the country to the Midwestern university where Carl is studying law—and there they marry. But Carl and Annie’s first year together is much more difficult than they anticipated as they find themselves in a faraway place with little money and few friends. With hardship and poverty weighing heavily upon them, they come to realize that their greatest sources of strength, loyalty, and love, will help them make it through. A moving and unforgettable story, Joy in the Morning is “a glad affirmation that love can accomplish the impossible.” (Chicago Tribune)




The Two Truths about Love


Book Description

Some relationships last, others fall apart, and still others seem to thrive and grow as the years go on. The Two Truths About Love is a guide to creating this third type of relationship—an extraordinary partnership wherein each partner feels fully accepted and loved as they are. Designed over the course of thousands of hours conducting face-to-face counseling sessions with clients, psychotherapist and former Buddhist monk Jason B. Fischer’s unique approach has already improved the lives of countless individuals and couples. The two secrets to creating extraordinary relationships are simple: partners must 1. Give permission for the other person to be who they truly are while also 2. Taking responsibility for their own reactions, behaviors, assumptions, and expectations of their partner and the relationship. This book gives readers the tools to start giving permission and taking responsibility in their own relationships and offers strategies for letting go of dissatisfaction and habitual conflicts. In short, accessible chapters, readers learn how to put these seemingly simple rules into practice to regain balance and peace in their partnerships.




52 Uncommon Dates


Book Description

OVER 100,000 COPIES SOLD! Fun, creative, and spiritually engaging—these are no ordinary dates! Have you ever tried a photography date? A water date? What about a second first date? 52 Uncommon Dates is more than a book. . . it’s an experience! Each date will set the scene for you and walk you through making it happen. Learn how to practically speak each other’s love language, incorporate prayer in ways that are natural and relevant to real life, and finish strong with questions that help keep conversation alive. You can even dig deeper to discover Bible passages that fit the theme of each date. Ignite prayerful and playful connections in ways that deepen the relational, physical, emotional, and spiritual aspects of your relationship, one date at a time.




ACT with Love


Book Description

Build more compassionate, accepting, and loving relationships with acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). Let’s face it: Picture-perfect storybook romances don’t exist in real life. Couples fight. Feelings of love wax and wane through the years. And the stress and tedium of everyday life and work can often drive a wedge between even the most devoted couples. So, how can you reignite passion and intimacy in your relationship, cultivate greater understanding and compassion between yourself and your partner, and bring the joy back to your love life? In this fully revised and updated edition of ACT with Love, therapist and world-renowned ACT expert Russ Harris shows how developing psychological flexibility—the ability to be in the present moment with openness, awareness, and focus, and to take effective action in line with one's values—can help you and your partner strengthen and deepen your relationship. Also included is new information on attachment theory, powerful mindfulness and self-compassion techniques, and assertiveness and boundary-setting skills. ACT with Love will show you how to: Let go of conflict, open up, and live fully in the present Use mindfulness to increase intimacy, connection, and understanding Resolve painful conflicts and reconcile long-standing differences Act on your values to build a rich and meaningful relationship If you’re looking to increase feelings of intimacy, love, and connection with your partner, this book has everything you need to get started—together.




Eight Dates


Book Description

Whether you’re newly together and eager to make it work or a longtime couple looking to strengthen and deepen your bond, Eight Dates offers a program of how, why, and when to have eight basic conversations with your partner that can result in a lifetime of love. “Happily ever after” is not by chance, it’s by choice– the choice each person in a relationship makes to remain open, remain curious, and, most of all, to keep talking to one another. From award-winning marriage researcher and bestselling author Dr. John Gottman and fellow researcher Julie Gottman, Eight Dates offers an ingenious and simple-to-implement approach to effective relationship communication. Here are the subjects that every serious couple should discuss: Trust. Family. Sex and intimacy. Dealing with conflict. Work and money. Dreams, and more. And here is how to talk about them—how to broach subjects that are difficult or embarrassing, how to be brave enough to say what you really feel. There are also suggestions for where and when to go on each date—book your favorite romantic restaurant for the Sex & Intimacy conversation (and maybe go to a yoga or dance class beforehand). There are questionnaires, innovative exercises, real-life case studies, and skills to master, including the Four Skills of Intimate Conversation and the Art of Listening. Because making love last is not about having a certain feeling—it’s about both of you being active and involved.




Self-Centered Spouse


Book Description

Brad Hambrick examines Jesus teachings about broken relationships and shares strategies for interacting with a chronically self-centered spouse, bringing hope to victims of marital abuse and neglect.




The Joy of Intimacy


Book Description

We all crave intimacy. It's essential to our emotional and spiritual health, and without it we don't feel whole. Yet today our culture faces an intimacy crisis. Many of us, even when we're in a committed relationship, still feel painfully alone.For more than four decades, world-renowned author, counselor, and teacher Manis Friedman has empowered couples to successfully navigate their own intimacy issues and replace loneliness and unfulfilled expectations with a deeply soulful and satisfying relationship. In this refreshingly frank, sensible, and at times humorous guide, Rabbi Friedman and Ricardo Adler share the deeper truths at the heart of our longing for intimacy along with practical wisdom from Jewish tradition-insights anyone can use to recapture passion, save their relationship, and tap into the essence of the true intimate experience.One by one, The Joy of Intimacy exposes the myths about love, sex, and intimacy that separate rather than bring us together and shows how to overcome the greatest obstacles to a healthy intimate relationship. You'll explore secrets to preserving your natural spontaneity, setting the mood for intimacy, and making your bedroom a sacred space. You'll also learn how to increase your sensitivity to the sacred experience of oneness that has the power to transform every aspect of your marriage and nourish all those around you.Whether you are married or single, in a relationship or seeking to create one that is both meaningful and lasting, The Joy of Intimacy will give you the skills and confidence you need to keep your relationship alive, fresh, and fulfilling.