Make Your Marriage as Great as Your Wedding

First of all, let me offer you my congratulations.  You are getting married.  And you are planning a wedding.  I hope you have the most wonderful day of your life and your wedding is everything you hope it to be.  I certainly remember my wedding day as the best of my life and my wedding reception as the best party I have ever been to.  I hope you can say the same.

But that is not why I am here today.  I want to talk to you about your marriage, the reason you are getting married in the first place.  While it is a lot of work to put together a wedding, it is also a lot of work to put together a good marriage.  It is certainly worth the effort and it is effort that pays off in the long term. 

Often we take the view that marriages take care of themselves.  All you have to do is choose the right person and then everything works out.  I mean, that is the way it works in the movies and in fairy tales, isn’t it?  Real life is different.  Happily ever after isn’t automatic.  It takes some effort to make a relationship work.  The good news is that with the right knowledge and a few skills, creating a fantastic marriage is within your reach.

I’m all about relationships.  My work is devoted to helping people have the best relationships they can in all aspects of their lives.  And there is no more important relationship than a marriage.  Over the next few months I will be sharing with you ways you can act now to make your marriage as strong and happy as possible.  This will include such things as issues to talk about, how to communicate, and fight, constructively, and many other things, maybe even a few that will help reduce the wedding planning stress.

Please don’t be bummed out and ignore me because I am saying a good marriage takes work.  Just remember that the marriage is the reason for the wedding.  It takes effort, but the rewards are enough to make the effort worthwhile.

Talk to you soon.

Dr. Mark

Dr. Mark Sharp is a psychologist who specializes in working with relationship issues.  He has been working with couples, families and individuals for more than twenty years.  In 2006 he founded the Aiki Relationship Institute in Oak Brook, IL, whose mission is to help people create the best possible relationships in all aspects of their lives. In addition to his commitment to helping people with their relationships, Dr. Mark is dedicated to the training of new professionals. He has supervised students from several local universities over the years and teaches a class on family and couples therapy every year at Rosalind Franklin University.

Dr. Mark is happily married to Debbi, an elementary school teacher.  They like to travel and try out new foods and restaurants.  Dr. Mark regularly practices the martial art of aikido, in which he holds a first degree black belt.  Interestingly enough, the aiki in aikido is the same one as in the Aiki Relationship Institute.  But that is another story.

You can contact Dr. Mark at drmark@aiki-relationships.com or through the Aiki Relationship Relatioship web site www.aiki-relationships.com.

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Dr. Mark's articles are available for redistrtribution with his permission.  Please contact him directly to redistribute any of his material.