10 Ways and Exercises To Improve Communication In Marriage

It is impossible to overestimate the importance of communication in marriage. Communication in good romantic relationships entails more than simply being able to sit down and tell your partner about your day.

Maintaining a high level of communication in marriage entails being able to have open and honest conversations about everything in your life.

You and your spouse must be able to communicate successfully with each other – using a range of communication styles, such as written communication – and create trust so that you are aware of and understand each other’s feelings, thoughts, and emotions.

If you and your husband appear to have drifted apart and you feel like you’re having communication problems, there are many marriage communication exercises for couples that you may take to assist improve communication skills and developing closer.

The Value of Communication in Marriage

Good communication between a couple can be said to be the cornerstone for a long and healthy relationship or marriage. Many married couples believe that their daily banter, or lack thereof, is unimportant to their mental health.

However, your capacity to communicate with your spouse frequently and effectively has a direct impact on many other elements of your relationship.

A lack of communication skills can have an impact on parental decisions, sex life, the ability to manage disagreement, and the ability to cope with the difficulties that most married couples endure.

What Is Effective Marriage Communication?

Marriage communication is much more than simply words. The context of the circumstance, body language, thoughtful listening, verbal or written communication, touch, and emotion all play a role in open communication in a marriage.

Powerful communication with your spouse is more than just saying what you need to say in a way that they can comprehend and accept.

Also Read: Dealing With Domestic Violence At Home

It is also about being able to participate in active listening with your partner and interpret their context clues and body language so that you are aware of what is going on with them even if they are not overtly or actively communicating with you.

Ten Techniques To Increase Marital Communication

That said, If you want to have a great marriage, you must communicate effectively with your partner. So, here are the ten techniques to increase marital communication.

1. Demonstrate respectful listening.

Taking responsibility is at the top of the list. Don’t wait for your spouse to make the first move; instead, take the initiative and begin listening right away. Good listeners tend to get listened to in return.

2. Decide to sincerely listen to what your partner has to say.

Yes, there is a choice. Do you claim to adore her? Then don’t tune her out when the topic isn’t something you’re interested in.

Make an attempt to attend that PTA function together; you might learn something. Read that Jane Austen book she adores; watch her favourite HGTV home makeover show with her; walk around the art show hand in hand; show some interest in her pals. Make the decision to be curious.

3. Write a note to your spouse that emphasizes your point.

“I’m looking forward to our Friday date!”
“Here are some items I want us to discuss with Junior’s teacher.” “What are your thoughts?”
“Thank you for bringing me lunch yesterday; I adore you!”
“I had a good time shooting the breeze with you.” Let’s get some coffee and talk some more.”

4. Establish consistent, media-free family mealtimes.

This relates to both marital communication and the family dynamic. Meals can be excellent communication opportunities. They are informal family meetings and workshops in which parents both teach and model good manners.

Plus, whether with or without children, mealtimes are a fantastic ongoing opportunity to keep the conversation flowing.

5. Leave the television off.

TV has turned out to be a major barrier to effective communication in marriage. Instead of conversing with your partner, you tend to spend hours in front of the TV. After which the next thing is bedtime.

This is very bad. In the long run, it destabilizes the relationship. If you must spend so much time in front of the TV, please do so with your partner. Be together in front of the TV.

It is better that way. In this case, you will find yourself both discussing relating scenes from the TV show or movie.

6. Maintain eye contact when speaking.

Use touch, responsive and reflective feedback, and body language (smiles, gestures, head tilts, raised eyebrows, nods, and so on) to convey that communication is taking place.

7. Avoid looking at your phone while conversing with your partner.

It conveys a clear statement about priorities. For most couples, it is a turn-off.

8. Avoid superficial or one-word responses.

When communicating with your spouse, it’s all too easy to dismiss genuine conversation, smother first-order engagement, and signal to your spouse that you’re uninterested.

9. Put all critical reminders, dates, and messages in one place.

Perhaps a huge refrigerator calendar, a bulletin board in the kitchen, or a whiteboard near the front entrance.

10. Add your spouse to all of your social media lists as a Friend.

Nobody deserves more of your time than your spouse. Include each other as primary contacts, stay “in the loop,” send daily messages, and act as though you are each other’s best friends. You most likely will be.

Marriage Communication Exercises

If you believe your marriage is suffering from a lack of efficient verbal communication, there are various healthy communication exercises you can do to improve communication in your marriage.

You have a number of options available to you. There are several excellent relationship communication exercises for couples and workbooks available to assist you and your spouse in learning how to communicate more successfully.

However, if you want to ensure that you are talking effectively and if the exercises and self-help books do not work, you may want the services of a counsellor, therapist, or other certified health professional.

While you may be able to conduct these relationship exercises and activities at home alone with your partner, you should also consider seeking professional advice from a therapist or counsellor, who can assist you in properly doing communication exercises for couples.

To begin, here are some marriage communication activities to attempt with couples in a loving relationship. Let’s take a look at each of the couple’s communication exercises and the benefits of doing so.

1. Mirror, Mirror

This effective communication exercise focuses on learning to listen to one another. Set a three to five-minute timer. You and your partner will each tell a story until the timer goes off. The other partner will repeat the story to the first partner as they understood it. Then you switch and repeat the exercise.

This will assist you in determining how well you can listen to each other and truly understand and regurgitate the information you are given.

Listening to your partner and analyzing their thoughts and feelings is an extremely important skill that will help you maintain good mental health in your marriage.

Active listening is the focus of these effective communication exercises for couples. When it comes to effective communication in a relationship, remember that active, compassionate listening is just as important as speaking.

This is also a great way to learn new stories and experiences from your partner while improving your listening and communication skills!

2. Future Objectives

Discussing future goals with your spouse is one of the most powerful communication exercises for married partners. Discussing your future goals and hopes can help you both be on the same page about where you want your lives to go and how you want to get there.

Your goals and your partner’s goals may not be the same, but that doesn’t mean they can’t coexist, and you can compromise to create a life that you both enjoy.

This verbal communication practice example is an assertive communication exercise that helps people express their true intentions without feeling obligated to agree with their partner.

This is one of the most important successful couple communication activities to undertake throughout the relationship.

It’s critical to understand your partner’s desires and expectations for the future at the start of a relationship or marriage. It’s also critical that they understand your goals and expectations for the future.

Even as the connection evolves and develops, it is critical to stay in touch with future aspirations. As a result, these effective communication exercises for couples are beneficial at any stage of the relationship’s development!

3. Song Lyrics

This music-based effective communication practice for married life is intended to assist you and your partner learn more about each other. Music is a very powerful form of written communication, and the lyrics to our favourite songs can mean a lot to different people.

Begin by sharing three favourite songs with your partner, and then engage in verbal communication to discuss how those lyrics make you feel, why they are important to you, and why you want to share them with your partner.

This communication exercise for couples can bring you closer together, expand your arsenal of communication styles, deepen your understanding of the love languages, improve communication skills, remind you of the importance of communication, and serve as a fun date night activity.

You’ll be looking outside the relationship for clues and words to express how you feel about your partner and your relationship in these effective communication exercises for couples.

This is a great way to think about your feelings and then search for the right words and music to express them. It’s also a lot of fun, and it creates many wonderful memories that will last throughout the relationship!

4. Repeat after me

If you and your partner become hot when you have a problem or disagreement, chances are you’ve said something harsh during an argument. This marriage communication exercise for couples focuses on helping each other see how you can change their communication style to phrase things differently in the future to avoid conflict and hurt feelings.

You and your partner think of two or three things that were uttered during your last argument. You then collaborate to figure out how those ideas and feelings could have been expressed in a more loving and nonjudgmental manner. This practice can be viewed as an assertive communication exercise in which you can learn to communicate your own feelings while remaining kind.

This made the list of effective communication exercises for couples because it allows both partners to reflect individually on their behaviour while also seeing how that behaviour – and communication style – affects the relationship as a whole.

It’s also a great communication exercise for couples because it promotes understanding and patience between you and your partner, as well as stress-relieving talk.

5. Sticks and Stones

We all know that comments and name-calling may be hurtful, but we do it all the time in the heat of the moment. In this couple communication exercise, you and your spouse will sit down and write a list of all the insulting names you’ve called each other. When your lists are finished, you can sit down and share them.

Discuss each name on the list, including how the bad wording made you feel, and allow your partner to do the same. In the future, ask yourself, “How does my spouse feel when I comment on anything they say or do?”

This is one of those effective communication exercises for couples that will also assist both partners in identifying potentially toxic communication patterns in their relationship. When you have to take a step back and contemplate your partner’s point of view, you’re seeing things from a different angle.

This broader perspective is an excellent approach to finding additional steps you and your partner may take to improve your relationship.

Conclusion

If these communication activities do not help you get the communication in your marriage back on track, you might need additional outside help from a mental health professional.

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