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Your marriage
What keeps a marriage well is not the big gestures. It is knowing each other, turning towards each other in ordinary moments, staying regulated when it gets hot, and repairing quickly when it goes wrong. Most of the practices here take under five minutes.
What works for this
Gottman on repair, and emotionally focused therapy
What separates couples who last is not the absence of conflict but what happens in the ordinary moments and whether repair gets through. Emotionally focused therapy works on the pattern the two of you fall into, not the thing being argued about.
One move, today
Notice one small overture from them today and answer it. Not a conversation, just turning towards it rather than past it.
What matches
2 practicesIf you go silent and shut down, do not just stonewall. Say you need a break, and come back when calm.
Silent withdrawal makes it worse. Name that you are overwhelmed, take twenty minutes, then re-engage.
When either of you floods, take a real break of at least twenty minutes before continuing, and agree when to return.
Past a certain heat the body cannot hear reason. Stop, settle, and come back at the time you set.
