In this month’s issue of tango.com, there are 8 ways to “spring clean” your relationship. While you’re in the change-of-season mood, try some of these things to see if they work:
1. Clear the air. If there are any conversations you and your mate have been avoiding, now is a great time to have them. This is a great way to clear the air between you and start with a fresh slate. It takes a lot more energy to avoid a topic than to put it on the table and deal with it.
2. Make room for new experiences. Look at your calendar and schedule a new outing together. Whether it’s a new museum, new restaurant, or new sports activity, spring is a perfect time to shake out your old habits, haunts, and activities and develop new ones.
3. Dust off resentments and unload past hurts. If you haven’t aired your hurt with your mate, do so in a productive way so he or she can hear what’s in your heart. Once you’ve done that, let it go. Revisiting old wounds just cements them. Throw out old baggage and start anew.
4. Clear the cobwebs from the bedroom. If you are feeling less intimate with your mate than you’d like, talk about your part in the state of affairs around the intimacy between you and be specific about what you’d like to see happen moving forward. If you are going in circles in this area, reach out for professional help.
5. Spiff up your appearance. Go through your closet and give away clothes that you have worn to shreds. Wearing something new now and then, or changing up a hairstyle can make you feel like a new person, which spill over onto your relationship.
6. Clean and organize areas where you spend the most time. Clutter and disorganization can cause stress within you and between you and your partner. Target the cluttered areas of your home and work as a team to keep clutter to a minimum.
7. Check tarnished relationships. Do an inventory of your friends. If you are spending time with friends who are negative and create challenges between you and your mate, you may want to re-evaluate the friendship. If family members are creating stress, review with one another where it feels appropriate to set boundaries with them, in a loving way. If you owe someone an apology, be free to give it. Humility and accountability do a lot to shine up any relationship.
8. Keep it maintained. Just as our homes, cars, and bodies need to be maintained, so do our relationships. Review the above ideas on a monthly basis to keep spring-cleaning your relationship on your radar.
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