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	<title>Better Relationships &#187; happiness</title>
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	<link>https://www.better-relationships.com</link>
	<description>Marriage &#38; Couples Counseling, Psychotherapy, Premarital Counseling</description>
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		<title>(6) Ways to Increase Intimacy and Escape the &#8216;Roommate&#8217; Syndrome</title>
		<link>https://www.better-relationships.com/6-ways-to-increase-intimacy-and-escape-the-roommate-syndrome/</link>
		<comments>https://www.better-relationships.com/6-ways-to-increase-intimacy-and-escape-the-roommate-syndrome/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 17 Jul 2018 21:23:05 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Swaniger]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[COMMITMENT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[COMMUNICATION]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CONFLICT]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MARRIAGE]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MEN'S ISSUES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RELATIONSHIPS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SEX]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WOMEN'S ISSUES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[communication]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finding happiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[happiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[intimacy]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[marriage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[relationships]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[sex]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">https://www.better-relationships.com/?p=4148</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Have you felt like you and your partner are more like roommates than intimate companions? Watching Netflix in your sweatpants while your partner plays a game on their cell phone sounds like a hot date, right? Not exactly. There is not a lot about that scenario radiating romance. What it does portray is a mutual level of extreme comfort you and your partner have embraced. Of course, nothing is wrong with feeling comfortable around your partner. Actually, you want to be comfortable with each other. But you also want to nurture the intimate connection you have and acting like roommates simply doesn’t do that. If you feel stuck in the ‘roommate rut’, try these suggestions: 1. Get in the Right Frame of Mind The roommate rut starts in your mind. To dig your way out of the rut, you first have to change the way you think about your relationship. To begin, stop thinking you’ve “arrived” in your relationship. No relationship ever arrives. But it can grow and move in new and exciting directions. There are always more adventures to be had and plenty more chapters to be written. Adopt a mindset that forces you to think of your partner differently. For instance, explore and learn more about them on a deeper level – their dreams, personal goals and struggles, fantasies, and wishes. And really listen to what they say.  One way to make your partner feel like they matter to you is to occasionally repeat back what you heard them saying to make sure you understood them. 2. Connect When You&#8217;re Apart Keeping a relationship healthy includes maintaining the connection while things are good between you and when they&#8217;re not. So, make a point to reach out to your partner during the course of the day. Instead of text messaging, it&#8217;s better to call if you can. A ten second phone call and hearing the sound of each other’s voice is sometimes all that it takes for partners feel cared about, even they&#8217;re fighting. If they can&#8217;t answer leave a message that you were thinking of them. Either way, [&#8230;]]]></description>
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		<title>Can Money Buy Happiness?</title>
		<link>https://www.better-relationships.com/can-money-buy-happiness/</link>
		<comments>https://www.better-relationships.com/can-money-buy-happiness/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 14 Jan 2017 00:44:26 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Swaniger]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Career]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MEN'S ISSUES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[RELATIONSHIPS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[WOMEN'S ISSUES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finding happiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[greed]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[happiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[money]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wealth]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.better-relationships.com/?p=3722</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The simple answer to this question is &#8216;No&#8217;. In most cases money can’t buy true happiness. It seldom if ever makes a bad relationship good, nor can it improve intimacy in a relationship. People with the highest incomes often have to work long hours, and many of them quit these jobs and find work that brings them greater life satisfaction. Once we adapt to higher incomes, it can soon lose its appeal. After a promotion  and higher salary, a person often feels greater life satisfaction and happiness but in less than about three months, the higher salary can lose its impact on happiness levels. Once we have a higher income we can take it for granted. As we accumulate more material possessions, our expectations rise. The things we once worked so hard for no longer make us happy. Our marriage and our relationships with our children suffer when our primary focus is making or having more wealth. Then we work even harder to get to the next level. And the same thing happens – we adapt to the higher level, and then within three months or so our happiness levels drop again. We end up on a treadmill, working harder and searching for more, then adapting to the higher levels. Happiness is hard to find if we look for it through monetary gain and material possessions. Making money can be like a drug addiction. We need more and more – and then we adapt to the higher levels. It becomes a never-ending cycle. If we grew up in an emotionally empty home and then succeed later in life, the financial wealth we have today can&#8217;t erase our history.The emotional pain and emptiness from our childhood remains. In fact, the more money we have, the more we a vulnerable to feeling the emptiness because of the contrast between our internal and external worlds. Finding happiness, either within ourselves or in our relationship, does not lie in making more money. It is found within. When money doesn&#8217;t improve the quality of your life, there are many other ways to achieve a more [&#8230;]]]></description>
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		<title>Finding Happiness</title>
		<link>https://www.better-relationships.com/finding-happiness/</link>
		<comments>https://www.better-relationships.com/finding-happiness/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 05 Nov 2016 23:35:13 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Jim Swaniger]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[RELATIONSHIPS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[character]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[charater strength]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[finding happiness]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[happiness]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.better-relationships.com/?p=3408</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Most people seek a life filled with meaning, contentment, gratification, and pleasure. We strive to reach society&#8217;s milestones of success &#8211; a college graduation; marriage; family; job promotion; buying a home – but these achievements don’t always bring us the happiness we expected. And although we&#8217;re successful by world standards &#8211; able to drive nice cars, live in large, clean houses, and have access to entertainment – many of us still experience higher levels of stress. Pushing ourselves to achieve &#8216;bigger and better&#8217;, we reach another goal only to find that it too doesn&#8217;t bring us the happiness we hoped for. We discover that money doesn&#8217;t buy us the happiness we thought it could. Sometimes this cycle leaves us feeling just the opposite &#8211; depressed or anxious or angry. However, recent research has focused on how a person can work toward a happier life. Identifying Your Personal Strengths Martin Seligman and his associates at the University of Pennsylvania base ‘Positive Psychology’ on years of research into what makes people happy.  They have concluded that happiness is an internal experience based on staying true to one’s genuine or authentic self.  In other words, when we can use our strongest abilities, or “signature strengths”, we have a chance to feel genuinely happy. They have identified the following twenty-four signature strengths that are found in cultures across the world. Identify the two or three that suit you best. To work toward authentic happiness, try to see how you can incorporate these strengths into your daily life experiences. 1.    Curiosity / Interest in the World. Curiosity suggests being open to experience and flexibility in dealing with ideas that do not fit your preconceived notions about the world. Curious people not only tolerate ambiguity well, but they seek it out and are attracted by it. Curiosity implies an active involvement in learning about new information, not just a passive interest in new things, and it is the opposite of being bored. 2.    Love of Learning. This strength refers to the strong enjoyment of learning new things, and it implies that you seek out learning wherever [&#8230;]]]></description>
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