If a relationship is a garden, what is the number one thing you could do to make it thrive? You might think it’s sex, but the number one relationship booster is appreciation. Appreciation is the most potent tool couples can use to cultivate their relationship with each other, their friends, and their family. My 25-year-long relationship with my wife, Yvonne Rainbow Teplitsky, has grown through mindfully and intently expressing our appreciation.

 

Rainbow is a brilliant artist, designer, and founder of the Artsy Goddess Studio whose practice of appreciation - not only in her relationship with me but with all of the people around her - has grown and blossomed like the flowers in her garden.

 

In this episode, Rainbow and I explore how appreciation has defined and deepened our 25-year-long relationship. We share how we began to consciously practice appreciation and how couples can establish appreciation as a practice. We discuss how consistently and meaningfully expressing appreciation can nip the bud of affairs in relationships and explain how a couple can escape the blame game through cultivating appreciation. We also illustrate how appreciation can magnify the potential in people as well as share an example of how Rainbow and I express our appreciation for each other.

 

“Appreciation expands and grows. Plant their seeds and see them bloom into flowers.” - Yvonne Rainbow Teplitsky

 

This week on Relationships! Let’s Talk About It:

• How appreciation made a profound difference in our relationship
• Why appreciation is the most essential tool couples have to maintain and strengthen their relationship
• What a HeartShare Appreciation is and the different levels of appreciation
• The importance of expressing appreciation as soon as you feel it
• Cultivating appreciation as a practice in the relationship
• The value of knowing and communicating how you want to be appreciated and what you want to be appreciated for
• Why it’s okay to appreciate your partner for the same things
• How we began to bring appreciation as a practice into our relationship
• The challenge of receiving kindness and appreciation from other people
• Appreciation as a tool to affair-proof a relationship
• John Gottman’s ratio of positive and negative interactions
• Getting out of the relationship criticism loop through the power of appreciation
• How appreciation makes us more open and accepting of challenges, accountability, and responsibility in relationships
• Deepening our connection with our son by modeling appreciation

 

Related Content:

• The Power of Appreciation
• Why Is It Hard to Receive Kindness?

 

Connect with Yvonne Rainbow Teplitsky:

• Artsy Goddess Studio
• Yvonne on LinkedIn
• Yvonne on Facebook
• Email: [email protected]

  

Let’s Talk About It!

 

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Theme music “These Streets” provided by Adi the Monk