Managing Conflict!

In a book by John Gottman titled, " The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work", he describes some important keys to managing conflict in marriage.

Negative emotions are important.

It's sometimes frowned upon to express negative emotion, but oh so important.  This key helps to really open up, listen, and communicate more intimately.

No one is right.

Gottman points out that "There is no immaculate perception."  

Acceptance is crucial

It is impossible for marriages to come to heed advice unless they believe the other person understands, respects, and accepts them for who they are.

Focus on fondness and admiration

I realized through reading about changing focus to fondness and admiration that it's crucial to manage conflict in our marriages.  If our focus is always on the negative then we are blinded from seeing the positive.

This week I realized just how important it is to not only manage our conflict in our marriages, but also in other relationships we have.  Especially our relationships with our children.

This video summarizes the 7 principles for making our marriages work.