My Happy Marriage: The Happy Wives Club Blog Tour

At the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, where I’m currently a student, one of the core concepts is the idea of primary foods – the things that feed you and bring joy and satisfaction into your life that AREN’T food. Examples of primary foods are education, career, spirituality and relationships. In order to live a happy, healthy, fulfilled life, you need to not only follow a diet that fuels your body well, but you also need to have balance and contentment in your primary foods. If you hate your career, hardly ever get much physical activity, your finances are in shambles, and your life is full of toxic relationships, you are not going to be a really healthy person, no matter how many vegetables you eat every day.

When the Happy Wives Club contacted me about writing a post as part of their “It’s All About Love” blog tour, I immediately was on board. Being that this is a healthy living blog and I explore so many aspects of my health, I thought it’d be great to write a post about my marriage – a main primary food in my life that brings me so much joy and happiness. I’m a little late to the party, since it began at the beginning of January, but better late than never right? 😉

With so many negative portrayals of marriage dominating the media all around us, Fawn Weaver started the blog Happy Wives Club because she was determined to find and connect with women just like her—happy and optimistic about marriage, deeply in love with her spouse, and committed to building a strong marriage that stands the test of time. The new Happy Wives Club book is Fawn’s journey across the world to meet new friends and discover what makes their marriages great.

Sometimes when people talk about relationships and marriages, they use the word ‘work’ a lot. They love to say, It’s a lot of work making a marriage successful. 

During my husband’s military career, we endured living on separate continents during deployments, cross-country moves and long work hours. Since then, there has been career change, more moving, and more long work hours. All of this has been part of what has made our marriage thus far an adventure. I wouldn’t want it any other way, and never once has the thought of our relationship being a lot of work crossed my mind.

If you look up the word work, nouns listed include: labor, toil, drudgery, grind, sweat, elbow grease. We’re each other’s biggest supporter, and that’s a genuine loyalty and feeling that has come naturally to us, with no elbow grease or drudgery involved. The simplest way I can try to put it into words is just to say that we’re true partners in life.

In thinking about what my secrets are to a happy marriage, there are a few words that stick out in my mind, and one of them is respect. You can’t have a healthy relationship without respecting one another. The moment you stop respecting your partner and their ideas and opinions is the moment your relationship starts to deteriorate. I have so much respect for my man, and I know that it’s a mutual feeling.

Another important word in our relationship is honesty. Both of us are pretty straight-forward people, so being honest has come easily in our relationship, and it’s an integral part of why we work as a couple. Being honest and genuine takes the guesswork out of figuring out your partner. If I want to know something, I ask, and I trust in the answer being truthful. Life’s too short to play games!

Maintaining our individuality has also been the backbone to our happy life as a couple.  In a marriage, I think it’s so important to never lose sight of yourself. Ask yourself, What are you bringing to the relationship? What makes you unique, lovable, and awesome?  My husband and I are our own people. While some of our interests and hobbies overlap, we also bring some different things to the table. We support each other in our own individual endeavors and aspirations. As an individual, I want him to be the happiest he can be, and as my own person, I want to be the happiest that I can be. In taking those individual experiences and personalities, respecting each other in our quests to be our best selves, and being honest about what we want out of life, our lives mesh together beautifully to make the happy marriage we have today.

In the spirit of spreading the wisdom, I ask you, what are your secrets to a happy relationship? 

If you’re interested in checking out Fawn’s journey in discovering the best marriage secrets the world has to offer, you can learn more about her book and grab a copy here. I think the book’s concept is pretty awesome!