Five Keys to a Happy Marriage

These tips are designed to make life and marriage a little easier, but by no means will they solve all of your issues in one swing. If you need to talk to someone, please consult an Orange County professional today.

Many people that get married first marry for passion and the “in-love” feeling they get, and eventually many of those marriages grow into deeper, more meaningful relationships. But what are some of the keys to marriages that scratch more than just the surface of human emotion? What are the keys to having a happy and successful marriage for any couple that wants to stay married?

Even though this is just a sampling of the things that can make a marriage rich, they are exceptional keys that any marriage can use.

Love. Even though love isn't everything in a relationship, and a marriage can't survive off of just love alone, it is essential in wanting to stay married even when times are tough. Two people have to love one another to find it in their hearts to stay together and grow old.

To nurture love in a relationship, a couple should spend time together that doesn't involve any phones or television screens. Being open and honest about everything can make two people grow closer as well and a deeper passion can find itself blooming.

Compatibility. At the core, compatibility between two people just means that they have to have similar values and interests. That doesn't mean everything has to stay the same, however, and some differences between two people can trigger deep and meaningful conversations that truly mean something to both parties involved. However, compatibility is still something required in a good marriage. For example, if he's a devout Christian and you're a devout Atheist and you both want to raise your children with the same background you had, this may cause deep and resonating compatibility problems. Also, if you both have different ideas of an ideal sex life, this can also cause compatibility issues that may be exceedingly difficult to conquer.

Understanding. There have been a number of relationships that have ended or have required extensive counseling because of misunderstandings. Getting an Orange County counselor is nothing to be ashamed of, especially if you want to fight for your marriage; however, basic understanding of one another is essential in any good relationship. Just because the spender spends more cash than the saver would like doesn't make either party more responsible than the other. A spouse seeking emotional support in a relationship has to understand that his or her spouse may not think or feel the way they do and isn't rejecting them when they don't feel affectionate.

Understanding is something that grows and develops over time, but it takes quite a bit of effort. However, the reward is a lifelong relationship that developed slowly and surely.

Commitment. Commitment may originally seem like one of the one of the most obvious needs for a marriage, but it's also one of the hardest. Commitment is synonymous in marriage for endurance. Even the hardest situations shouldn't scare you away.

Imagine a situation where your spouse is very sick and the doctors don't think that he or she will make it. Will you continue to fight until the end? What if your spouse cheats on you – are you willing to give it the time and the effort to try to work it out? Commitment is something that's very hard to maintain but incredibly important throughout the extent of any relationship.

Tolerance. Just because you and your partner are incompatible on some level doesn't mean your relationship is left for dead. One of the requirements for any relationship is tolerance. Just because your partner likes things organized and you don't doesn't mean that you can't work together, even if one another's behavior annoys you both. You simply have different values, but these kinds of things aren't always deal breakers – you just have to understand you can't talk through those problems or make anything better. You simply have to choose to tolerate one another instead.