5 Languages of Love

Relationships can be challenging & it takes teamwork, understanding and behavioural flexibility to develop a strong, sustainable, loving bond. In life, we can often come from a space of, "What's in it for me" type thinking that can prevent us from stepping into our partners world.
As individuals, we all have our own values, beliefs & life experiences that will differ from others & combined with our need to be right (our Ego), this can cause conflict and a perception of not understanding or appreciating your partner. We also may differ with how we experience & show our love to others.

The 5 love languages explored in Gary Chapman's book, helps us understand how to express & appreciate your partners love languages.

The 5 love languages are:
1. Words of Affirmation
2. Acts of Service
3. Receiving gifts
4. Quality time
5. Physical touch

Do you know yours & your partners love language and if so, what are you currently doing to fulfill these needs & fill up each-others love bucket?

My hubby Rocky (Yes that is his real name) & I have been together for nearly 27 years. We both share the love language of physical touch and have at least one hug a day however we differ with our top 2 languages. Mine is gifts & Rocky's is words of affirmation.

We put high importance & effort on focusing on meeting these needs even though they are not our own individual drivers in experiencing or expressing love.
So when Rocky mows the lawn, I ensure I check it out & give him positive feedback and leave notes in his lunch box from time to time with words of appreciation.
On Sunday, Rocky picked me a rose from the garden and said this is my special gift from him and this morning, I opened up my diary to see a love note in there. (Ok, stop laughing at the Boombie nickname).

My message to you is to focus on filling up each others love bucket in your relationship as often as you can. It's not just for the courting stages, make it a lifetime commitment to each other and I promise you that you will reap the rewards.

Who are you comparing yourself to?

When you compare, you often despair. As you are unique, there cannot be a balanced comparison between you and others. You may often compare the best of others as you see them from their outside persona, to the worst part of the inside of yourself. If this is your strategy, you will never win at that game. Unless this is serving you in your life, Stop it.

Focus on tapping into your own resources, practice communicating to yourself in an empowering way and be your own best coach. The best time to start doing this is Right Now.