Marriage is the the natural consequence of love. Celebrating with friends and family, we profess vows of faithfulness in sickness and in health, in good times and bad. On that day, fulfilling those vows seems easy. Nothing will prevent us from fulfilling them. Come what may, we will make it through ’til death do us part’. But then the realities of married life take shape, and it is not what you envisioned. You could be asking yourself ‘is there a way to save my marriage’?

A marriage can be saved, even completely transformed from a sad, or even depressing, situation to a life long love affair with your spouse. Even in the most difficult situations, such as adultery, marriages can be saved. Trust in hope, and know that you are not alone. Saving your marriage requires that you clearly understand what you should and should not do in the reconciliation process. Your desire to change your marriage for the better led you to this article in the first place.

First, here are the phases the relationship lifecycle. There are six stages:

1. Romance and infatuation

2. After the honeymoon

3. Staking your territories

4. Evaluation

5. Reconnection

6. Commitment

You are likely in stage 4 right now, and wanting to get to stage 5. But you may be also be wondering why you married your spouse in the first place. Perhaps marriage would be better with a different spouse. It is a difficult time realizing the dream, your vision of marriage, is not what you now have. The romance and infatuation stage is long gone and so are the blissful feelings of the honeymoon stage. While this is emotionally very hard, it is also perfectly normal. Closeness and intimacy, and sexual relations, change for the worse and this is the point where one of you may consider an affair. Avoid this no matter how difficult it seems at the moment. Remember you took vows, and now you must develop the skills to reconnect with your partner and change your marriage. Working through this will be painful and difficult, but keep the goal in mind. Make sure you equip yourself with the right tools to make the process more effective. By doing this you can get the result you want and avoid becoming a marriage statistic.

Questions commonly asked at this point include: what should I do if my partner does not want to make an effort to save the marriage, is there a way I can get past the hurt, will we be able to trust each other again. At this point, you need to be cautious and deliberate. Begging for forgiveness or making promises to change may not get a warm reception. Try on the old clich of walking a mile in their shoes. On the other hand, can you forgive your spouse? It might not be easy. These are serious issues and going for a quick fix is not the answer to transforming your marriage. If fact, it will only lead to more hurt. Most marital difficulties develop with time so they take time to fix. Make the effort to have the skills you need to get to stage 5, reconnection. In the end, you will be glad you did and you will know the answer to the question ‘is there a way to save my marriage’ is a resounding, ‘yes’.