After a few years of dating, many of us feel comfortable with our partner and other priorities can affect the time we spend with them. No matter how hard we try to strike a balance, decades of research on human behavior suggests it's more difficult than it seems.
Recently, some researchers tried an approach to help people have more moments with the person they love. They asked study participants to express gratitude to their partner when they felt it. Why gratitude? Because it is an emotion that reminds us what we like about the person of our heart.
The people in the study realized that there were many things their partners had done for them that they felt grateful for.
The experiment lasted 8 weeks and the researcher noticed that it worked for 2/3 of the participants. Gratitude brought them even closer physically.
In other words, in everyday life, couples are constantly doing things for each other that can be appreciated. Gratitude helps us rediscover things we love about our partner and strengthen our relationship in the process.
