Surviving the First Year of Marriage

Surviving the First Year of Marriage

How many times have you heard the phrase, "The first year of marriage is the hardest!"? Probably too many times to remember. It seems as though every newly wed receives that bit of advice, it's become a requisite along with the usual groans about getting married in the first place. Truth is, marriage is a beautiful and sacred thing. Most people understand and realize that but it's easier to joke about the bad times than let your guard down about the greatness of the good times. So that first year of marriage, is it truth or is a myth? Is the first year of marriage really the hardest? It's not an easy question to answer unless you've been married for 40 years and have the experience of all those years to really determine which specific year was the hardest to go through together. The first year is most likely described as the hardest because of all the changes in your lives together. No longer are you two independent people living intertwined but ultimately separate lives.  You are now a single entity living under a single roof and learning a whole lot more about each other; and that can be quite tough.

So how do you ensure the magic leading up to the marriage proposal continues long after? How do ease the transition so that the first year is the best and easiest year? Follow these tips to help you survive the first year of marriage:

1.     Love the Person in the Mirror. Now this doesn't mean become overly vain and cocky once that ring goes on the finger, but really this means in order to truly make your marriage work you need to love yourself and be comfortable with who you are. If you are comfortable with the person staring back at you in the mirror, you'll never be completely comfortable around someone else. In order for this first year to go smoothly, be comfortable with yourself and allow your partner to be comfortable with themselves accept each other for who you both are. Chances are you are going to be around them in situations you aren't typically used to, being comfortable and confident will help the transition into truly knowing each other inside and out.

2.     Take Out The Trash. Share responsibilities and treat each other as equals. Offer to help clean up or do the dishes or take out the trash. Offer your partner a day off from doing chores. The point is to do things together and to make each other feel important and not like a slave.

3.     Talk About the News. Talk to each other! About your day, about the news, about something funny that happened on the way to work, about a new song you heard on the radio, about a new movie coming out that you want to see. Talk. Talk. Talk. Tell each other how you are feeling, open up to each other and let each other in. In this first year of marriage, you really need to be able to communicate. You are both scared and nervous and want this marriage to last, so open up to each other.

4.     Laugh. This may the most important tip of all. When in doubt, learn to laugh at your self and with each other. If an argument starts, take a moment to stop and think about how it started and what you are actually fighting about, chances are it's something silly so just allow yourself to laugh at the little things in life rather than get worked up over them.

Sure there are millions of tips for surviving your first year of marriage , but follow these simple tips and make the first year of marriage the greatest year of your lives.