Marriage Strengthening Exercises That Have an Immediate Impact

By Encompass Outreach Group

Most marriages have difficulties, arguments, and even fights that can lead to you and your partner feeling disconnected from each other. Marriage strengthening exercises help you reconnect and find your love again by focusing on areas like team-building, intimacy, and communication. Here’s how to strengthen your marriage using exercises that will have an immediate impact, some of which you can even do at home.

Making Lists

• Appreciation/encouragement lists - You and your partner both make a list with five things they do that you appreciate, and five things they could be doing to encourage you, make you feel loved, or make you feel more appreciated. Exchange lists and try to make those things a part of what you do every day
• Create a bucket list - Make a bucket list of things you want to do and see together and start planning them into your schedule

 
Doing Things Together

• Exercise together - Exercising is a great way to deal with stress and feel better about yourself. Start working out together to boost the well-being of your bodies and your relationship
• Complete a task with one arm each - For a fun team-building exercise, you and your partner each tie one of your arms behind your back and complete a task together using your free arms, like tying a shoe, buttoning a shirt, or making a sandwich
• Consistent date nights - Schedule a consistent date night that you and your partner can look forward to where you spend quality time together
• Cuddling - It sounds simple, but cuddling with your partner more strengthens your intimacy and connection
• Try new things together - Cook new dishes, learn a new language, or take up a new hobby
• Trust fall - It may be something you have had to do at school or work in the past, but doing trust falls can also strengthen your trust in your partner
• Breathing exercises - Practice breathing exercises together with your partner. A good starter is to lie down with your partner face-to-face with your foreheads (but not your noses/lips) touching. Try to get into the same breathing pattern as your partner and see how many breaths you can take in unison

 
​Talking/Planning

• 20 questions - Play this common icebreaker game with your partner to talk about topics you might not touch on anymore. Maybe this is even how you first got to know each other. Add more unique, personal questions specific to each of you
• Reflective listening - Practice reflective listening, which means listening to your partner completely before you jump in and try to offer suggestions or find a solution. Sometimes people just need to vent and know they are being heard
• Unplug from technology - Make an effort to unplug from technology every night and have time devoted just to you and your partner before bed. This can be used to talk, cuddle, read together, or just spend some nice quiet time together with no distractions
• Three little things today - Before bed each night, tell your partner two little things they did that day that made your day better. Then, for the third little thing, include something larger or something from the past
• Set goals together - Setting goals together for things like health, finances, careers, hobbies, fun activities, social interactions, and intellectual activities helps you and your partner get on the same page and bond over the things you want in your life

 
Encompass Connection Center helps couples learn how to resolve conflict and create fulfilling, productive relationships. We offer a free relationship assessment to determine your relationship’s strengths and potential threats. For more help, look into our RINGS Experience, which includes marriage strengthening exercises and a coaching model to help build real intimacy and growth skills.

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