Penn and I have been married for 16 years, so we’ve gotten real comfortable with each other. (Like he sees me in 20-year-old sweatpants and still thinks I’m hot.) We have gotten so comfortable, in fact, that one day while in a fight we realized… are we showing more gratitude and appreciation to complete strangers than each other?
When You Have A Gratitude Deficit
Nine times out of 10 if one of us is getting snippy with the other one it’s due to a lack of appreciation and gratitude. Once we went to our marriage coach, Christopher Edmonston, with a huge blowout fight and instead of talking through the actual fight with us, he said:
It is not possible to say thank you too much in a marriage.
We had no idea the last time we genuinely thanked each other. In further conversation, we realized we were showing more gratitude, patience, and appreciation to complete strangers than to each other. The lack of gratitude was making our relationship suffer. Luckily, we were able to develop some strategies to get us out of the rut.
In this week’s podcast, we share our top tips to help when you are feeling a gratitude deficit and how to show appreciation more effectively. Leave a review or comment, and tell us how you make sure you show gratitude to your significant other!
