Improving Communication Skills in Business and Relationships

Effective communication helps us better understand a person or situation and enables us to resolve differences, build trust and respect, and create environments where creative ideas, problem solving, affection, and caring can flourish. As simple as communication seems, much of what we try to communicate to others—and what others try to communicate to us—gets misunderstood, which can cause conflict and frustration in personal and professional relationships. By learning these effective communication skills, you can better connect with your spouse, kids, friends, and coworkers.

What is effective communication?

In the information age, we have to send, receive, and process huge numbers of messages every day. But effective communication is about more than just exchanging information; it's also about understanding the emotion behind the information. Effective communication can improve relationships at home, work, and in social situations by deepening your connections to others and improving teamwork, decision-making, and problem solving. It enables you to communicate even negative or difficult messages without creating conflict or destroying trust. Effective communication combines a set of skills including nonverbal communication, attentive listening, the ability to manage stress in the moment, and the capacity to recognize and understand your own emotions and those of the person you’re communicating with.
While effective communication is a learned skill, it is more effective when it’s spontaneous rather than formulaic. A speech that is read, for example, rarely has the same impact as a speech that’s delivered (or appears to be delivered) spontaneously. Of course, it takes time and effort to develop these skills and become an effective communicator. The more effort and practice you put in, the more instinctive and spontaneous your communication skills will become.

Effective communication skills #1: Listening

Listening is one of the most important aspects of effective communication. Successful listening means not just understanding the words or the information being communicated, but also understanding how the speaker feels about what they’re communicating.
Effective listening can:

• Make the speaker feel heard and understood, which can help build a stronger, deeper connection between you.
• Create an environment where everyone feels safe to express ideas, opinions, and feelings, or plan and problem solve in creative ways.
• Save time by helping clarify information, avoid conflicts and misunderstandings.
• Relieve negative emotions. When emotions are running high, if the speaker feels that he or she has been truly heard, it can help to calm them down, relieve negative feelings, and allow for real understanding or problem solving to begin.

Tips for effective listening

If your goal is to fully understand and connect with the other person, listening effectively will often come naturally. If it doesn’t, you can remember the following tips. The more you practice them, the more satisfying and rewarding your interactions with others will become.

• Focus fully on the speaker, his or her body language, and other nonverbal cues. If you’re daydreaming, checking text messages, or doodling, you’re almost certain to miss nonverbal cues in the conversation. If you find it hard to concentrate on some speakers, try repeating their words over in your head—it’ll reinforce their message and help you stay focused.
• Avoid interrupting or trying to redirect the conversation to your concerns, by saying something like, “If you think that’s bad, let me tell you what happened to me.” Listening is not the same as waiting for your turn to talk. You can’t concentrate on what someone’s saying if you’re forming what you’re going to say next. Often, the speaker can read your facial expressions and know that your mind’s elsewhere.
• Avoid seeming judgmental. In order to communicate effectively with someone, you don’t have to like them or agree with their ideas, values, or opinions. However, you do need to set aside your judgment and withhold blame and criticism in order to fully understand a person. The most difficult communication, when successfully executed, can lead to the most unlikely and profound connection with someone.
• Show your interest in what’s being said. Nod occasionally, smile at the person, and make sure your posture is open and inviting. Encourage the speaker to continue with small verbal comments like “yes” or “uh huh.”

Effective communication skills #2: Nonverbal communication

When we communicate things that we care about, we do so mainly using nonverbal signals. Wordless communication, or body language, includes facial expressions, body movement and gestures, eye contact, posture, the tone of your voice, and even your muscle tension and breathing. The way you look, listen, move, and react to another person tells them more about how you’re feeling than words alone ever can.
Developing the ability to understand and use nonverbal communication can help you connect with others, express what you really mean, navigate challenging situations, and build better relationships at home and work.

• You can enhance effective communication by using open body language—arms uncrossed, standing with an open stance or sitting on the edge of your seat, and maintaining eye contact with the person you’re talking to.
• You can also use body language to emphasize or enhance your verbal message—patting a friend on the back while complimenting him on his success, for example, or pounding your fists to underline your message.

Tips for improving how you read nonverbal communication

• Practice observing people in public places, such as a shopping mall, bus, train, café, restaurant, or even on a television talk show with the sound muted. Observing how others use body language can teach you how to better receive and use nonverbal signals when conversing with others. Notice how people act and react to each other. Try to guess what their relationship is, what they’re talking about, and how each feels about what is being said.
• Be aware of individual differences. People from different countries and cultures tend to use different nonverbal communication gestures, so it’s important to take age, culture, religion, gender, and emotional state into account when reading body language signals. An American teen, a grieving widow, and an Asian businessman, for example, are likely to use nonverbal signals differently.
• Look at nonverbal communication signals as a group. Don’t read too much into a single gesture or nonverbal cue. Consider all of the nonverbal signals you receive, from eye contact to tone of voice to body language. Anyone can slip up occasionally and let eye contact slip, for example, or briefly cross their arms without meaning to. Consider the signals as a whole to get a better “read” on a person.

Tips for improving how to deliver nonverbal communication

• Use nonverbal signals that match up with your words. Nonverbal communication should reinforce what is being said, not contradict it. If you say one thing, but your body language says something else, your listener will likely feel you’re being dishonest. For example, you can’t say “yes” while shaking your head no.
• Adjust your nonverbal signals according to the context. The tone of your voice, for example, should be different when you’re addressing a child than when you’re addressing a group of adults. Similarly, take into account the emotional state and cultural background of the person you’re interacting with.
• Use body language to convey positive feelings even when you're not actually experiencing them. If you’re nervous about a situation—a job interview, important presentation, or first date, for example—you can use positive body language to signal confidence, even though you’re not feeling it. Instead of tentatively entering a room with your head down, eyes averted, and sliding into a chair, try standing tall with your shoulders back, smiling and maintaining eye contact, and delivering a firm handshake. It will make you feel more self-confident and help to put the other person at ease.

Effective communication skills #3: Managing stress

Learn to recognize & reduce hidden stress

Quick Stress Relief

In small doses, stress can help you perform under pressure. However, when stress becomes constant and overwhelming, it can hamper effective communication by disrupting your capacity to think clearly and creatively, and act appropriately. When you’re stressed, you’re more likely to misread other people, send confusing or off-putting nonverbal signals, and lapse into unhealthy knee-jerk patterns of behavior.
How many times have you felt stressed during a disagreement with your spouse, kids, boss, friends, or coworkers and then said or done something you later regretted? If you can quickly relieve stress and return to a calm state, you’ll not only avoid such regrets, but in many cases you’ll also help to calm the other person as well. It’s only when you’re in a calm, relaxed state that you'll be able to know whether the situation requires a response, or whether the other person’s signals indicate it would be better to remain silent.

Quick stress relief for effective communication

When stress strikes, you can’t always temper it by taking time out to meditate or go for a run, especially if you’re in the middle of a meeting with your boss or an argument with your spouse, for example. By learning to quickly reduce stress in the moment, though, you can safely face any strong emotions you’re experiencing, regulate your feelings, and behave appropriately. When you know how to maintain a relaxed, energized state of awareness—even when something upsetting happens—you can remain emotionally available and engaged.
To deal with stress during communication:

• Recognize when you’re becoming stressed. Your body will let you know if you’re stressed as you communicate. Are your muscles or your stomach tight and/or sore? Are your hands clenched? Is your breath shallow? Are you "forgetting" to breathe?
• Take a moment to calm down before deciding to continue a conversation or postpone it.
• Bring your senses to the rescue and quickly manage stress by taking a few deep breaths, clenching and relaxing muscles, or recalling a soothing, sensory-rich image, for example. The best way to rapidly and reliably relieve stress is through the senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, and smell. But each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find things that are soothing to you.
• Look for humor in the situation. When used appropriately, humor is a great way to relieve stress when communicating. When you or those around you start taking things too seriously, find a way to lighten the mood by sharing a joke or amusing story.
• Be willing to compromise. Sometimes, if you can both bend a little, you’ll be able to find a happy middle ground that reduces the stress levels for everyone concerned. If you realize that the other person cares much more about something than you do, compromise may be easier for you and a good investment in the future of the relationship.
• Agree to disagree, if necessary, and take time away from the situation so everyone can calm down. Take a quick break and move away from the situation. Go for a stroll outside if possible, or spend a few minutes meditating. Physical movement or finding a quiet place to regain your balance can quickly reduce stress.

Effective communication skills #4: Emotional awareness

Learn to recognize & accept your emotions

 Developing emotional awareness

Emotions play an important role in the way we communicate at home and work. It’s the way you feel, more than the way you think, that motivates you to communicate or to make decisions. The way you react to emotionally driven, nonverbal cues affects both how you understand other people and how they understand you. If you are out of touch with your feelings, and don’t understand how you feel or why you feel that way, you’ll have a hard time communicating your feelings and needs to others. This can result in frustration, misunderstandings, and conflict. When you don’t address what’s really bothering you, you often become embroiled in petty squabbles instead—arguing with your spouse about how the towels should be hung, for example, or with a coworker about whose turn it is to restock the copier.
Emotional awareness provides you the tools needed for understanding both yourself and other people, and the real messages they are communicating to you. Although knowing your own feelings may seem simple, many people ignore or try to sedate strong emotions like anger, sadness, and fear. But your ability to communicate depends on being connected to these feelings. If you’re afraid of strong emotions or if you insist on communicating only on a rational level, it will impair your ability to fully understand others, creatively problem solve, resolve conflicts, or build an affectionate connection with someone.

How emotional awareness can improve effective communication

Emotional awareness—the consciousness of your moment-to-moment emotional experience—and the ability to manage all of your feelings appropriately is the basis for effective communication.
Emotional awareness helps you:

• Understand and empathize with what is really troubling other people
• Understand yourself, including what’s really troubling you and what you really want
• Stay motivated to understand and empathize with the person you’re interacting with, even if you don’t like them or their message
• Communicate clearly and effectively, even when delivering negative messages
• Build strong, trusting, and rewarding relationships, think creatively, solve problems, and resolve conflicts

Effective communication requires both thinking and feeling

When emotional awareness is strongly developed, you’ll know what you’re feeling without having to think about it—and you’ll be able to use these emotional cues to understand what someone is really communicating to you and act accordingly. The goal of effective communication is to find a healthy balance between your intellect and your emotions, between thinking and feeling.

Emotional awareness is a skill you can learn

Emotional awareness is a skill that, with patience and practice, can be learned at any time of life. You can develop emotional awareness by learning how to get in touch with difficult emotions and manage uncomfortable feelings, including anger, sadness, fear, disgust, surprise, and joy. When you know how to do this, you can remain in control of your emotions and behavior, even in very challenging situations, and communicate more clearly and effectively.

Relationship tipz

A relationship is an investment that will build as you continue to devote your time and effort. The more you put in, the more you’ll get back.
As well as commitment and a willingness to adapt and change throughout life, healthy relationships require skills in communication and emotional awareness. Thankfully, these skills can be easily learned. They can even help to repair many relationships.
If your romantic relationship is less than you need or want, or even if it’s on the rocks, there are steps you can take to repair trust and rebuild a satisfying and meaningful connection.

How to strengthen your loving relationship

What makes a healthy love relationship?Everyone’s relationship is unique, and people come together for many different reasons. But there are some things that good relationships have in common. Knowing the basic principles of healthy relationships helps keep them meaningful, fulfilling and exciting in both happy times and sad:

• Staying involved with each other. Some relationships get stuck in peaceful coexistence, but without truly relating to each other and working together. While it may seem stable on the surface, lack of involvement and communication increases distance. When you need to talk about something important, the connection and understanding may no longer be there.
• Getting through conflict. Some couples talk things out quietly, while others may raise their voices and passionately disagree. The key in a strong relationship, though, is not to be fearful of conflict. You need to be safe to express things that bother you without fear of retaliation, and be able to resolve conflict without humiliation, degradation or insisting on being right. 
• Keeping outside relationships and interests alive. No one person can meet all of our needs, and expecting too much from someone can put a lot of unhealthy pressure on a relationship. Having friends and outside interests not only strengthens your social network, but brings new insights and stimulation to the relationship, too.
• Communicating. Honest, direct communication is a key part of any relationship. When both people feel comfortable expressing their needs, fears, and desires, trust and bonds are strengthened. Nonverbal cues—body language like eye contact, leaning forward or away, or touching someone’s arm—are critical to communication.

Relationship advice tip 1: Keep physical intimacy alive

Touch is a fundamental part of human existence. Studies on infants have shown the importance of regular, loving touch and holding on brain development. These benefits do not end in childhood. Life without physical contact with others is a lonely life indeed.

Studies have shown that affectionate touch actually boosts the body’s levels of oxytocin, a hormone that influences bonding and attachment. In a committed relationship between two adult partners, physical intercourse is often a cornerstone of the relationship. However, intercourse should not be the only method of physical intimacy in a relationship. Regular, affectionate touch—holding hands, hugging, or kissing—is equally important.

Be sensitive to what your partner likes. While touch is a key part of a healthy relationship, it’s important to take some time to find out what your partner really likes. Unwanted touching or inappropriate overtures can make the other person tense up and retreat—exactly what you don’t want.

Relationship advice tip 2: Spend quality time together

You probably have fond memories of when you were first dating your loved one. Everything may have seemed new and exciting, and you may have spent hours just chatting together or coming up with new, exciting things to try. However, as time goes by, children, demanding jobs, long commutes, different hobbies and other obligations can make it hard to find time together. It’s critical for your relationship, though, to make time for yourselves. If you don’t have quality time, communication and understanding start to erode.

Simple ways to connect as a couple and rekindle love

• Commit to spending quality time together on a regular basis. Even during very busy and stressful times, a few minutes of really sharing and connecting can help keep bonds strong.
• Find something that you enjoy doing together, whether it is a shared hobby, dance class, daily walk, or sitting over a cup of coffee in the morning.
• Try something new together. Doing new things together can be a fun way to connect and keep things interesting. It can be as simple as trying a new restaurant or going on a day trip to a place you’ve never been before.

Couples are often more fun and playful in the early stages of a relationship. However, this playful attitude can sometimes be forgotten as life challenges or old resentments start getting in the way. Keeping a sense of humor can actually help you get through tough times, reduce stress, and work through issues more easily.

Focus on having fun together

• Think about playful ways to surprise your partner, like bringing flowers or a favorite movie home unexpectedly.
• Learn from the “play experts” together. Playing with pets or small children can really help you reconnect with your playful side. If it’s something you do together, you also learn more about your partner and how he or she likes to have fun.
• Make a habit of laughing together whenever you can. Most situations are not as bleak as they appear to be when you approach them with humor.

Learning how to play again

A little humor and playful interaction can go a long way in relieving tense situations and helping you see the brighter side. If you’re feeling a little rusty, learn more about how playful communication can improve your relationship, and for fun ways to practice this skill.

Relationship advice tip 3: Never stop communicating

Good communication is a fundamental part of a healthy relationship. When people stop communicating well, they stop relating well, and times of change or stress can really bring out disconnect. As long as you are communicating, you can work through whatever problem you’re facing.

Learn your partner’s emotional cues

Each of us is a little different in how we best receive information. Some people might respond better to sight, sound, or touch. Your partner’s responses may be different from yours. Take some time to learn your partner’s cues, and be sure to communicate your own as well. For example, one person might find a brief massage after a stressful day a loving mode of communication—while another might just want to talk over a hot cup of tea.

So much of our communication is transmitted by what we don’t say. Nonverbal cues—such as eye contact, leaning forward or away, or touching someone’s arm—communicate much more than words. For a relationship to work well, each person has to be receptive to sending and receiving nonverbal cues. Learning to understand this “body language” can help you better understand what your partner is trying to say. Think about what you are transmitting as well, and if what you say matches what you feel. If you say “I’m fine,” but you clench your teeth and look away, then your body is clearly signaling you are not.

Question your assumptions

If you’ve known each other for a while, you may assume that your partner has a pretty good idea of what you are thinking and what you need. However, your partner is not a mind reader. While your partner may have some idea, it is much healthier to directly express your needs to avoid any confusion. Your partner may sense something, but it might not be what you need. What’s more, people change, and what you needed and wanted five years ago, for example, may be very different now. Getting in the habit of expressing your needs helps you weather difficult times, which otherwise may lead to increasing resentment, misunderstanding, and anger.

Use your senses to keep stress in check

If you’re not calm and focused, you won’t be able to communicate effectively. The best way to reduce stress quickly and reliably is through the senses. But each person responds differently to sensory input, so you need to find things that are soothing to you.

Relationship advice tip 4: Healthy relationships are built on give and take

If you expect to get what you want 100% of a time in a relationship, you are setting yourself up for disappointment. Healthy relationships are built on compromise, and it takes work on each person’s part to make sure that there is a reasonable exchange.

Recognize what’s important to your partner

Knowing what is truly important to your partner can go a long way towards building goodwill and an atmosphere of compromise. On the flip side, it’s also important for your partner to recognize your wants and for you to state them clearly. Constantly compromising your needs for others' will build resentment and anger.

Don’t make “winning” your goal

If you approach your partner with the attitude that things have to be your way or else, it will be difficult to reach a compromise. Sometimes this attitude comes from not having your needs met while you were younger, or it could be from years of accumulated resentment building up in your current relationship. It’s all right to have strong convictions about something, but your partner deserves to be heard as well. You are more likely to get your needs met if you respect what your partner needs, and compromise when you can.

Learn how to respectfully resolve conflict

Conflict is inevitable in any relationship, but to keep a relationship strong, both people need to feel they’ve been heard. The goal is not to win but to resolve the conflict with respect and love.

• Make sure you are fighting fair.
• Don’t attack someone directly; use “I” statements to communicate how you feel.
• Don’t drag old arguments into the mix.
• Keep the focus on the issue at hand, and respect the other person.

Relationship advice tip 5: Expect ups and downs

It’s also important to recognize that there are ups and downs in every relationship. You won’t always be on the same page. Sometimes one partner may be struggling with an issue that stresses them, such as the death of a close family member. Other events, like job loss or severe health problems, can affect both partners and make it difficult to relate to each other. You might have different ideas of managing finances or raising children. Different people cope with stress differently, and misunderstanding can rapidly turn to frustration and anger.

Relationship advice for getting through life’s ups and downs

• Don’t take out your problems on your partner. Life stresses can make us short tempered. If you are coping with a lot of stress, it might seem easier to snap at your partner. Fighting like this might initially feel like a release, but it slowly poisons your relationship. Find other ways to vent your anger and frustration.
• Some problems are bigger than both of you. Trying to force a solution can cause even more problems. Every person works through problems and issues in his or her own way. Remember that you’re a team. Continuing to move forward together can get you through the rough spots.
• Be open to change. Change is inevitable in life, and it will happen whether you go with it or fight it. Flexibility is essential to adapt to the change that is always taking place in any relationship, and it allows you to grow together through both the good times and the bad.
• Don’t ignore problems. Whatever problems arise in a romantic relationship, it’s important to face them together as a couple. If an aspect of the relationship stops working, don’t simply ignore it, but instead address it with your partner. Things change, so respond to them together as they do.

Romantic relationships require ongoing attention

Many couples focus on their relationship only when there are specific, unavoidable problems to overcome. Once the problems have been resolved they often switch their attention back to their careers, kids, or other interests. However, romantic relationships require ongoing attention and commitment for love to flourish. As long as the health of a romantic relationship remains important to you, it is going to require your attention and effort.

20 Rules for a Healthy Relationship

I think of these rules as everything a couple must learn for an ongoing happy relationship. If you are unhappy in your current relationship, print these out, post them to the fridge, and start to act on them. 

Though some of them may seem quite simplistic and/or impossible, I promise that if you follow them to the best of your ability, your misery level will go down precipitously and you will remember what it is like to be in love with your mate.

Practice Daily: Compassion, understanding, respect and empathy. If you are not using one of these you are off track.

And here are some other tips/rules of healthy relationships that I have learned throughout the years: 
1. Throw things at or near the other person. With anger, don't repress it, but don't let it out immediately either. Find out what is causing the anger, cool down and then talk about what you are feeling.

Related: 5 Ways to Stop Sabotaging Your Relationship

2. Know the difference between criticism and a complaint. A criticism is a negative assessment of your behavior that is telling you that you have done something wrong, which causes the person to become defensive. A complaint is telling the other person what you want and need moving forward. Complaints are positive and about the future, criticism is negative and about the past. We can't change the past but we can succeed in the future. There is no such thing asconstructive criticism between couples.

3. Avoid contempt, blaming or shaming.

4. Be on the lookout for defensiveness.

5. Turn off the negativity. Accentuate the positive.

6. Refuse to engage in stonewalling or turning away from your partner for longer than twenty minutes. Then come back to the table.

7. Don't play the victim role or the perpetrator.

fight fair8. Fight fair: No yelling, name-calling, sarcasm, bringing up past grievances (stick to the topic at hand) or hitting below the belt --ever.

Related: 6 Rules for Fighting Fair

9. Take time to discuss what you want and need from each other. Create a values based relationship. If you agree on your basic values you can navigate the conflicts better.

10. Be tender in all your interactions. 
11. Keep your promises. 
12. Develop and nurture a good sense of humor. (That includes laughing at yourself when you screw up).

13. Acknowledge what your partner is saying before you say your peace. 
14. Show appreciation when your partner does something nice for you .

15. Be responsible for yourself, your health and your messes. 
16. Be considerate…put your partner's needs first at least half the time. 
17.Own your part in a problem, even if you think it is 98% and 2%, You can still own your 2%. 
18. Make a commitment to do relationship work. Be a part of the solution. 
19. Remember that Connection (with a capital "C") is your top priority. 
20. Practice loving kindness…remember that you can't always be right, but you can always be kind.

9 Marriage Problems That Are Actually Good for Your Relationship

Every marriage has its uh-oh moments that leave you questioning your compatibility as a couple. While some behaviors, like cheating, are obvious deal-breakers, other seeming threats can actually have a positive impact on your relationship. Below, nine marital mannerisms that may seem ominous but truly can be good, according to experts. Plus, what to watch out for so things don’t go too far.

1. You both fantasize about other people.

“Fantasies are an ancient aphrodisiac,” says Iris Krasnow, author of The Secret Lives of Wives: Women Share What It Really Takes to Stay Married. “A vivid imagination allows you to open up to your partner physically and emotionally." So thinking about a sexy neighbor, for example, can improve your marriage—as long as those racy visions stay in your mind. That means leave it out of pillow talk; neither of you needs to know exactly who—or what—the other is thinking about. And don’t let daydreams jeopardize the intimacy you feel with your spouse, says Krasnow. “The danger is when fantasy becomes an obsession that overshadows a real relationship.”

2. He goes out with the guys.

“Happily married couples have an active life together and dynamic life apart,” says Andrea Syrtash, relationship expert and author of Cheat on Your Husband (with Your Husband). “Interests and hobbies outside of marriage feed a person’s spirit and help break up routine.” Cathy* of Chicago, IL, knows this firsthand from her part-time musician husband. “He goes to band ‘practice,’ and I put that in quotes because sometimes it’s just an excuse to drink beers with the boys.” Cathy used to be bothered by it but not anymore. “He always comes home by midnight and answers any questions I have,” she says, adding that he’s happier and more relaxed the next day. But the real coup: “When I want to do things with my friends—especially now that we have a baby—he’ll move mountains for me to be able to do that,” she says.

3. You argue a lot.

Fighting isn’t necessarily a sign of a broken relationship, says Syrtash. “It means you trust each other enough to share your feelings,” she says. The key is arguing without attacking your spouse’s character. And when you hear him out out and solve misunderstandings, you're strengthening your bond. Even recurring fights aren’t cause for concern. "Couples tend to recycle arguments,” says Syrtash. “Identify what you keep arguing about when you're not in the heart of a fight. Try, ‘I know you don't like the way I clean the kitchen, but it looks clean to me when I'm done. How can I make you feel better about it?’ Listen, and then mention what triggers you and why it's important to you.” One caveat: If you're constantly arguing about things that you can’t change about each other, like personality traits, you have to decide whether or not you can live with them.

4. He spends a lot of money on his hobbies.

“It’s one thing to go to Vegas when you can’t make mortgage payments,” says Krasnow. “But if the bills are paid and the kids are taken care of, let your husband get new golf clubs or go on a fishing trip.” Couples need to feel like they’re growing as individuals, and occasional splurges can enhance personal fulfillment. “When two people are happy separately, they have a better shot of going the distance together,” says Krasnow.

5. He uses porn.


Porn is a slippery slope, but it doesn’t have to mean disaster, says Susan Heitler, PhD, a Denver psychologist and creator of the marriage-skills website PowerofTwoMarriage.com. Couples who are honest about their interest in porn may be able to incorporate it into their sex lives. “Consider using it as a lead-up to the act or to enhance your routine,” says Dr. Heitler. It only becomes problematic when porn is used in secret or instead of interaction with a partner. But if he or you use it occasionally when the other’s not around, that’s okay.

6. He works all the time.

Melissa* from Ft. Lauderdale, FL, was frustrated by her husband’s 60-hour workweek. “I felt like a single mom to our two boys,” she says. Eventually, though, she realized that even after-work functions were his way of climbing the corporate ladder. “He had to schmooze to market himself. It was his way of showing the company he was willing to do whatever necessary,” she points out. He was ultimately made manager, and Melissa says the benefits aren’t merely financial: “Because he misses the kids’ activities during the week, he devotes entire weekends to building our family bond.” If your man is a workhorse, think back to when you first started dating, suggests Syrtash. Chances are, his drive and passion for his job are qualities that initially attracted you to him. But it could be a problem if “work always comes first—ahead of your kid’s school play or your anniversary,” says Syrtash.

7. You both flirt with other people online.

Between Facebook, Twitter and more, it’s easier than ever to reconnect with old flames, says Krasnow. But flirty friendships can be healthy as long as they don’t get physical, she notes. “It’s a self-esteem boost when men you don’t live with find you smart, inspiring and beautiful,” she says. When women feel good, they make better moms and wives. But be careful: Virtual relationships lose their innocence when a married person becomes infatuated with someone else. And that obsession can cause someone to mislead their online love interest. "Avoid giving off vibes like you might get a divorce,” says Krasnow. “Bashing your husband because you’re having a bad day isn’t okay. Sending provocative photos is also a bad idea."

8. You’re too tired for sex.

“We’re all overscheduled," says Syrtash. "It’s hard to find time for anything, let alone making love." But the less you do it, the less you’ll want to do it: A lack of intercourse causes testosterone levels to drop in both sexes, says Syrtash. Instead of waiting for inspiration to strike, schedule sex. It gives you something to anticipate, explains Syrtash. And have fun with it! Designate Tuesday night as date night—then, send playful texts during the day to fuel the fire.

9. He’s close with a female colleague.

Acknowledge that your husband’s success on the job may be a direct result of his ability to work well with others. In fact, “your financial stability and social status may depend on this specific office relationship,” says Dr. Heitler. While the potential exists for sexual feelings to arise when a man and woman work together, couples can beat the threat by talking openly about their fears. If your man is getting too chummy with his office wife, Dr. Heitler suggests asking him to keep conversations work-specific, stick to public places and avoid alcohol, which can lead to inappropriate behavior.

10 Secrets of Healthy Relationships

Truth be told, keeping him happy in the sack isn't the (only) key to a healthy relationship. It takes some serious communication, openness, and-shout-out to Ben Affleck-work (!) to have a happy life with another human being. Consider these 10 tips from certified sex therapist Sari Cooper your healthy relationship bible. 

By David

1. Express Yourself 
 "One of the foundations of a healthy relationship is being able to express your feelings to your partner and learning how to listen," says Cooper. "Witnessing or mirroring [basically saying 'I get you'] is a good basic form of communication." But saying 'I get you' doesn't mean 'I agree with you.' In other words, hear him out, but don't just agree to keep the peace. 

2. Schedule Quality Time Together 
Particularly as you get further along in your relationship-moving in together, having kids, the whole shebang-you'll have plenty of logistical conversations that need to happen. Who's making sure the kids aren't stranded at soccer practice, how to handle telling Momzilla that you're going to his folks' for the holidays, and so on. "That doesn't give a sense of emotional bonding or intimacy that many people are craving," says Cooper. Carve out quality time when you're focusing on each other and nothing else. 

3. Fight for a (Specific) Cause 
"There's a term in couples counseling we use called 'kitchen sinking,'" says Cooper. You probably already guessed what it means: That mountain of complaints that piles up like the dishes in your skank-ass sink-starting with his griping about you stealing the TV remote whenever he turns on the sports channel and then snowballs into an argument about house chores, date nights and the fact that you never wear the awful jewelry he bought you for V-Day. Don't do it. Arguing about a bunch of issues all at once is too overwhelming to tackle. Stick to one at a time. 

4. Introduce New Experiences 
Now you don't have to sign up for the next season of Survivor, but you do want to continuously introduce novel experiences into your relationship. Whether that's adding a new sex toy into your routine, traveling to Tahiti like you've always dreamed of, or taking a French class together, you want grow together-and challenge each other-with new shared experiences. 

Related: WAIT! Before You Move In Together... 

5. Express Appreciation 
Everyone loves an ego boost. Tell him what a great job he did planning your latest date so he doesn't feel taken for granted. Chances are it will inspire him to give you the same well-deserved pats on the back. 

6. Make a Contract 
 "A lot of couples have nonverbal contracts that are vaguely set up based on habits," says Cooper, but many haven't made a conscious effort to agree on who's doing what. For instance, you might be the better cook, but you want him to step it up in the kitchen two days a week. Acknowledge your individual strengths, what you each would like to contribute (and where you're willing to compromise). And renegotiate the contract every few years. 

7. Request Permission to Talk 
No, not in a submissive Gabby Reece way. Ask your partner if it's okay timing to chat about a touchier (read: contentious) topic before launching into a monologue. 

8. Be Spontaneous 
 Remember how fun the just-getting-to-know-each-other, unpredictable sex period of yourrelationship was? Hold on to some of that magic even as you are together for a longer period of time. Make the effort to be creative, woo, and surprise each other. Take turns planning special dates. 

Related: 8 Compliments Your Man Wants to Hear 

9. Do You 
Growing and changing for the better as a person will make your relationship a better place. "One of the most important things about being in a relationship is you learn as much if not more about yourself as you do about your partner," says Cooper. By watching the way that you react to your partner and the ways in which you're challenged, you're forced to grow. 

10. Don't Give Up Your BFFs 
 Absolutely true that you want your partner to be the first person you call with good news, and also the first shoulder you want to cry on. But the idea that your spouse has to be your number-one best friend is a myth, says Cooper. "Girls relate to best friends in a certain way, and I find a lot of women get dismayed expecting a man to react as a girlfriend would when he doesn't." Rather than seeking a man who will empathize with every emotion you express, find a person you're excited to share your life with,

If You Don’t Know What Your Man Is Thinking

Here’s How To Find Out Exactly What’s Going On In His Head So You Can Re-Ignite His Love And Create An Intimate Connection That Lasts A Lifetime… Even If He’s Already Thinking Of Leaving

Ask any woman what makes a relationship successful, and almost all of them will mention one common thing: COMMUNICATION.

That’s because when you and your man are able to share open, honest communication with each other you create a rock-solid foundation that is nearly impossible to break.

Rough spots aren’t the cause of distance in a relationship. It’s how you handle them that matters. In fact, with good communication, a “rough spot” can actually bring you closer together, further building trust and connection.

Unfortunately, creating open, honest communication isn’t easy. In fact, the man is often unhelpful and seemingly unable to create that kind of dynamic.

Most women run into one of the following two challenges when trying to communicate with their man:

1. He Doesn’t Listen

If you’re not communicating with him in a way that is WORKING… it doesn’t matter how much more often you try to communicate.

Do you ever feel like what you say to your man goes in one ear and out the other?

Maybe you’ve asked him nicely to take out the trash every Tuesday for the past 10 weeks… yet every Wednesday morning you wake up to find it hasn’t happened…

Of course, the trash isn’t a big deal. What IS a big deal is that he just isn’t listening and doesn’t seem to care.

And then the same thing happens when you try to share something meaningful… like where your relationship is going or something that’s upsetting you… only to find he seems to care more about who won the ballgame or what’s for dinner!

This can be INSANELY frustrating… and the worst thing is he doesn’t even seem to care that it makes you feel this way.

2. He Doesn’t Talk

Have you ever known your man was upset about something and asked him what was wrong… and he simply replied with, “Nothing” and walked away?

You KNEW something was going on… but instead of wanting to talk about it and share his feelings… he simply shut down… and left you to try and “guess” what was bothering him and how to fix it. It’s hard enough to fix the actual problem… but now you’ve also got a passive aggressive problem to deal with on TOP of the actual problem!

Unfortunately, the things most women do to try to “fix” these frustrating situations gets them nowhere.

They may try to share LESS of their feelings because they don’t see the point in trying.

I think you know that this isn’t the answer.

Other women try to overcompensate and communicate MORE.

But if you’re not communicating with him in a way that is WORKING… it doesn’t matter how much more often you try to communicate. If you’re driving and you run into a brick wall, should you keep running into it? After months or even years of getting nowhere, most women give up and move on.

It’s sad. And it sucks. But here’s the good news:

IT DOESN’T HAVE TO BE THIS WAY.

Really.

You can get your man to listen to you. You can get him to share his thoughts and feelingswith you. And you can get him to take an active interest in making the magical thing you share last and last and last…

You just need the right TOOLS and techniques to help you do it.

NEWSFLASH: Your Man WANTS To Communicate With You… But He Needs YOUR Help

Just because it may seem like your man doesn’t want to communicate on an emotional level… does that really mean he doesn’t want too?

In fact, 9 out of 10 men in a relationship WANT to communicate just as much… if not MORE… than the woman he is with.

It’s just that nearly every man is taught from a very early age that it is not ok for him to open up to another person. It’s just not the “manly” thing to do.

These beliefs are POUNDED into his head day in and day out.

As a result of this upbringing, we men are very cautious when it comes to meaningful communication and the whole idea of “feelings” in general.

It’s not healthy… but it’s all we know.

So we get a scared and nervous when a woman wants to talk “feelings”. It’s not only something we’ve never done … it’s also something that we are taught will make us appear WEAK, INSECURE, and less of a man.

This creates a huge dilemma for us…

We want to open up to you… but at the same time, we just don’t feel comfortable doing so. So we take the “easy” way out and just avoid it all together.

Fortunately, this “bad programming” of ours can actually be GOOD NEWS for you…

How The Way You Communicate With Him Determines Whether Or Not You Are “The One” For Him…

Most men have so many barriers to open communication that there is a very good chance that your man has never opened up to a woman before.

If you can be the one woman who can connect with him on an intimate level, it can be a VERY powerful.

He will see you as his soulmate: the one woman on earth who has helped him release all of those feelings and frustrations he’s bottled up inside over all of those years… and the one woman he can TRULY connect with.

And fortunately. making a man feel comfortable and open to sharing his feelings with you can actually be EASY when you know the right way to overcome the barriers to communication that are built up in his mind.

How Good Relationships Go Bad… And What To Do About It…

In addition to how men are conditioned, there are all kinds of other things that make him resistant to communication: stress in other areas of his life, insecurities, or baggage from past relationships.

In order to effectively communicate with him, it’s important that you learn what his unique barriers to open communication are, and how to help him overcome them in a way that makes him excited about doing it.

When you do this correctly, your man will LISTEN to what you have to say, and open up to you every single day.

How To Create The Kind Of Open, Understanding Relationship Most Couples Never Get To Experience… Quickly And Easily…

My Communication Secrets for a Secure Relationship program was designed to teach you how to communicate so your man listens, takes interest in what you have to say, and opens up and shares his most intimate thoughts and feelings.

You’ll learn a complete system for identifying exactly what a man means when he says something… and what it means when he doesn’t say anything at all.

You’ll discover clear ways to communicate and share your thoughts and emotions in a way that a man will listen, respect your feelings, and respond in a positive way.

You’ll also learn about ways of communicating that go BEYOND WORDS, so you can understand what’s going on “beneath the surface” and literally see inside a man’s mind to figure out what he’s REALLY thinking and feeling.