A –Appreciation

I have chosen 26 Tips for a Happy Married Life 

as my theme for A-Z April challenge, 2016. 

Today the word is Appreciation.

In the early years of marriage I took little effort to notice and appreciate David for all the little things done for me. But as time passed, children came in taking away a lot of my time and energy and married in a joint family coping with in laws made it challenging to look for bright side of life. I got busy with work, home, kids and slowly I found it difficult to appreciate him. 

I even stopped appreciating myself and started getting into a race of running in and running out of the house to meet the demands both at home, meeting every one’s need and responding to kids and work front – busy meeting deadlines. In the process I neglected our relationship – it was as if both of us got so involved working for the family, but never found time to appreciate and take time for each other. That’s how we took one another for granted.

It took a lot of time; and plenty of experiences both positive and negative to slow me down and ask myself some very serious questions that challenged me to look within, take responsibility for what I have created for myself and my family. I had to recreate a new experience by changing the way I perceived our relationship. Once I understood the family dynamics and what was happening in me that impacted the outer reality. I decided to change and bring in small acts of kindness and began a new cycle of appreciating my husband for what he was; and everything he did for me and our family. Appreciation helped us in building loving relationships, within the family bringing us closer and enjoy and deeper and stronger bond with each other.

All of us love to hear the positive aspects of our personality and it makes us feel good and motivates us to become better day after day. Make appreciation a habit, start thanking your spouse whenever you find him being helpful either with domestic work or any other work, for the outdoor work, for fixing things like the washing machine, or television or sometimes even the computers. “The seed of goodness is found in the soil of appreciation says Dalai Lama”

In the whole process of appreciating David I began to appreciate myself everyday; and catch myself immediately whenever I make a negative statement about myself. Appreciation is a liberating act, leading us to be happy and fulfilling married life. It is often a common saying that “Appreciation in marriage is an antidote for divorce”

I love this quote of Dalai Lama which says “The seed of goodness is found in the soil of appreciation”

Would love to hear your thoughts appreciation?

Be Blessed & Be Happy !