John Gottman explains that nurturing your fondness and admiration system is the best way to not have the four deadly horseman in your relationship: defensiveness, contempt, stonewalling, and criticism. Gottman gives several exercises and ideas on how to increase the positiivty we both feel and express to our spouse.

Dr. John Gottman's first principle in what makes happy, stable relationships and marriages is what he calls having a detailed "love map" of your partners likes, dislikes, hopes, dreams, fears, and stressors, etc. The book has multiple helpful questionaires and exercises!

Today we cover how Dr. John Gottman predicts divorce which such things as a harsh start-up, the 4 horseman which are criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonwalling, and many more.

Today we cover Dr. John Gottman's chapter on "What Does Make Marriage Work" from his book The Seven Princiles of Making Marriage Work.

I am applying for graudate school to become a marriage and family therapist so I am devoting the next year to reading all of John Gottman's books and podcasting about my discoveries. The Seven Principles for Making Marriage Work I consider is the best book on marriage and relationships out there. It's based in research and packed full of exercises to do to strengthen your relationship. I'm excited to share this journey with you!

Today we discuss steps of healthy and helpful communication from the consulting company Global Leader Group who trains businesses around the world on interpersonal relations and communication. The steps are:

1. ask if it's a good time to talk
2. share positive feelings about the other person and your relationship
3. play back a situation that happened as factually as possible
4. get curious and ask for other person's perspective
5. share the impact the situation had on you

Today we discuss healthy conflict vs. distructive conflict and how healthy families are not conflict-free. Healthy families repair, communicate, and reconnect after conflict.

Today we discuss what's underneath conflict as we learn from John Bowlby's Attachment Theory and John Gottman's research.

My youngest daughter came to me and said "your phone is my enemy! I want to be with you!" We use our phones and devices for very important and also fun things so this episode is not about any amount of parent guilt but about inspiring us all to be fully present a little more. Today we discuss leading experts words on the impact of parental tech use and what is recommened.

Today we discuss 5 things that help create emotional safety in families and name some things that create unsafety.