It’s the age old question “what do women want” in a marriage? If having a successful marriage is directly related to meeting each other’s needs then it’s quite important to know what those needs are. This episode will be a two part series that will follow up with exploring the needs that men have as well (so don’t feel left out guys)!

With the amount of coaching sessions we do, we have a great insight into the common needs that are going unmet for couples. There are themes that seem to show up in general, so even the specific needs we hear from women in one season, will not be the same in another.

In this episode you will hear the top 3 needs we are hearing from women right now, which are especially related to the longer a couple is together. As you will hear from the beginning, these needs are more like categories than specific actions. If you look at them this way then it won’t seem like a moving target from one season to another. Focus on these 3 categories and you will find more flexibility and effectiveness in meeting the needs in the years to come.

Relationship Resources:

Want fun, simple, and sweet ideas for feeling more Prioritized by each other? Make sure you take advantage of the 30-Day “Prioritizing Us’ couples challenge that is starting less than 2 days from when this is posted. Go to MyCouplesChallenge.com

No matter how busy you are, these prompts are realistic but shake things up a bit and get you out of the routine in your interactions. Just read the testimonials and you’ll see why over 32,000 couples have loved our challenges.

The success of your life and marriage isn’t as much about the things that happen to you, but how well you can course-correct. This goes for bigger life decisions about where to live, send your kids to school, and where to spend money. As well as the amount of time to pass before initiating repair after a conflict, the attitude you wake up with, and even the thoughts you let your mind focus on.

So then what does “course-correcting” actually look like in regard to these decisions? That is exactly what you will hear in the episode. You are going to hear 4 questions to ask yourselves that will help you to determine whether you are on path or off path, which greatly impacts your satisfaction in your life and marriage together. (So yes it’s pretty important!)

Relationship Resources Mentioned

The Level 1 “Prioritizing Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (you get the popular Family Meeting guide as a bonus gift with this)

The Level 2 “Rebuilding Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (repairing and rebuilding after a harder season of marriage)

Additional Guides - https://www.meetthefreemans.com/links

Whether you’ve been in a funk as a couple, or things have just felt pretty routine with your “adulting” responsibilities, this episode will help you SPARK more fun together!

The truth is, life is short. And we don’t believe we’re meant to just let the weeks pass by and survive our busy schedule. Of course there are challenging days (and you hear us talk about that), but let’s enter into a season of more fulfillment, connection, and play together.

You will hear 5 very tangible and actionable ways to spark more fun together, so dive on in!

We often hear couples say, “we get inspired and motivated to create these changes for a few days, and then we forget or get off track.” And that’s exactly why we created the 30-Day Couples Challenge!

Relationship Resources (pick between):

Level 1: “Prioritizing Us” is focused on strengthening your connection, communication, and fun Love Deposit ideas. LINKED HERE - https://mycoupleschallenge.com/

Level 2: “Rebuilding Us” is focused on repairing and rebuilding after a harder season of marriage. LINKED HERE - https://mycoupleschallenge.com/rebuilding

Talk about things before they become a bigger issue. On our vacation with family, I brought up the topic of intimacy (physical specifically) and it sparked a great conversation between us. Now for many this could be a conversation that isn’t brought up and turns into a bigger issue later. This is when it can turn into a “weed” that impacts your marriage. Or it could be a conversation that causes defensiveness and conflict. Neither of these are positive options.

You see, we want to talk about how we’re feeling and what we want BEFORE it starts to affect you and the connection, trust, or openness you have with your partner.

In this episode you will hear us discuss:

• What’s a “seed” in the relationship vs a “weed”

• What happens when we don’t discuss things soon enough

• How to think about bringing these things up and making it a productive conversation

Relationship Resources:

The Level 1 “Prioritizing Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (you get the popular Family Meeting guide as a bonus gift with this)

The Level 2 “Rebuilding Us” 30-Day Couples Challenge (repairing and rebuilding after a harder season of marriage)

You’ve likely heard of the now popular Attachment Theory about having a secure, safe, trusting, and connected relationship. If you have, likely what you’ve seen is quite conceptual and you are not sure how to use the information. If you have not heard of this theory it simply describes how you connect and bond with a partner and how that was influenced by your parents (or primary caregiver) as well as other romantic relationships you have been in (primary attachment figures).

For us Attachment Theory has become so popular online, rightfully so, but without the right experts describing how to use this theory to make a difference in your own relationship, or how to actually change your style. In this episode you will hear from Attachment Theory expert, counselor, PhD, author, and founder of Personal Development School, Thais Gibson! You will hear her cover:

• The 4 Attachment Styles (quickly)

• The 5 Pillars and traits of each style

• How to reprogram your conscious mind (where attachment needs and behaviors come from) with tools like autosuggestion to change your style

Relationship Resources

Take the FREE Quiz to determine your Attachment Style: https://attachment.personaldevelopmentschool.com/quiz

Learn more from the Personal Development School:

https://university.personaldevelopmentschool.com/

Join our 30-Day Couples Challenges (level 1 or 2) starting July 1st, 2024

https://www.meetthefreemans.com/challenges

Many communications between couples can cause misunderstandings. This leads to more expectations and further frustrations and upsets. Then these upsets can turn into conflicts. Though it seems simple to just “listen better”, listening is not the same as hearing.

Listening is the requirement for understanding, but even then, it does not guarantee complete and accurate understanding of what was actually meant by your partner.

Though much of this has to do with the listener's role, there is also much to say about the speaker and how they deliver the message so as to not create mistranslations.

In this episode you will hear:

• Mistakes the speaker makes

• Mistakes the listener makes

• 5 tips for more productive conversations

• Plus the psychology principles that can prevent communications from being misunderstood or turning into conflicts.

Relationship Resources:

1) Join the upcoming 30-Day Couples Challenge “Prioritizing Us”, proven to improve your interactions, help you understand each other more, strengthen your connection, and fill your Love Accounts. https://mycoupleschallenge.com/

2) For links to our top resources and guides: https://www.meetthefreemans.com/links

“I’m sorry” - 2 little words that can not only be challenging for some partners to say, but also can mean MANY different things.

So in today’s episode we cover:

• Several specific reasons apologizing can be harder for some (self-awareness)

• Why couples can battle over whether the ‘I’m sorry’ is deemed “necessary”

• The different meanings of “I’m sorry” and how to expand your language for more things to say in these moments

• How to get better at apologizing, big or small

We encourage BOTH of you to listen to this episode and talk about how you can both be better. Because these little moments truly can strengthen your bond or erode your ability to respect each other. We know, strong statement, but respect is tied to this.

As you listen, make sure you get our popular Making Up & Moving Forward guide. These repair steps prevent re-triggering a conflict, having to re-hash the details, and ensures you both feel resolved.

“How do I get my partner to _____?” This is one of the most common questions we get. Obviously this is referring to wanting a partner to change a behavior in a certain area of the relationship. Underneath that question is the real question of “what is going to motivate my partner?”

If you have ever had this experience of wanting your partner to change something, but they didn’t, you likely felt discouraged or even burnt out. This was likely because you have been asking for things to change for some time now, but nothing did.

In this episode you will hear about the process of motivation and being able to achieve a result you have been wanting to have in your relationship. You will get the 6 steps of the decision making process and how to overcome the motivation threshold so that you do not feel that same burnout or discouragement from not seeing a change happen. In the end you will realize there was something even better for you than the goal you initially set out to achieve!

Relationship Resources:

1) For use in your "Evaluation Step" from the episode, here is the link to the Family Meeting Guide - https://thecouplesexperience.com/family

2) Start the level 1 Prioritizing Us 30-Day Couples Challenge and get the Family Meeting guide as a free bonus. - https://mycoupleschallenge.com/

3) Start the level 2 Rebuiulding Us Couples Challenge - https://mycoupleschallenge.com/rebuilding