I have to be honest with you: in my household, Valentine’s Day is not really that significant to my husband and I. It kind of feels like a Hallmark holiday to us. Our wedding anniversary, however, now that feels important. It feels like every single year we earn that anniversary by showing up, doing the work and sticking it out together for one more year. In a very similar vein, I feel like so many couples and families have really earned the one year anniversary of the pandemic that is coming up. This is a wonderful time to pause and give your relationship a little bit of positive feedback.
Couples Therapy
If you find that your relationship has felt stressed over the past year due to the unpredictable and constraining conditions of the pandemic, I highly encourage you to seek couples therapy to support your relationship functioning. In the meantime, here are two things that you can quite easily do to energize the relationships in your household: First and foremost, voice some acknowledgement and appreciation for the way your loved ones have showed up in the past year. Even if it wasn’t perfect (because I am quite certain it was imperfect!) you can still appreciate the things that they helped you get through, and the ways in which they did that. Secondly, a lot of people right now feel the need to turn a page from the previous chapter into what’s coming next. A very effective way you can do that in your household is to have a conversation about hope and what each of you are looking forward to in this upcoming year. How things are going to be different and what you are excited to start doing again.
Both of those strategies should help give you and your loved ones a little boost of energy and lightheartedness. Please remember, do not forget to acknowledge your own self on March 13th. I hope you’ll take a moment to give yourself some credit for the ways in which you have shown up and the ways in which you have stuck it through. Even on the days that you didn’t think that you were going to be able to do it. We made it.
Couples Counseling in Denver
If you are located in the Denver area and are considering some dedicated couples work to bolster your current pandemic relationship strategies, please reach out to our team of relationship experts here at Flourish Counseling & Coaching. You can find more about our approached to relationship counseling here.