Take time to relax and enjoy each other remembering marriage is friendship and fun. Renew romance and find ways to restore a pleasurable intimate relationship. Reconnect with your children on an adult level, and find balance with your own parents. Talk openly and regularly about what matters, where life is leading, and what it all means. The authors also emphasize the need to watch out for the following four pitfalls in conversation with your spouse.
Escalation occurs when partners respond back and forth negatively until it become hard to forgive.
Withdrawal occurs when one partner is unwilling to get into and stay with important discussions. Negative interpretations occur when one partner consistently believes that the motives of the other are more negative than is really the case. When you begin to recognize the danger signs, then you can begin to rectify them, making your future years together both happy and mutually fulfilling. See related articles in the AgeVenture archives. A national crisis in geriatric mental health care is emerging and action must be taken to address the impending social and economic consequences.