Welcome to Relationship Building week! We’ve decided to spend the next week offering articles to help you build your relationships by exploring concepts that help couples grow closer together. Part VI of our Relationship Building series focuses on how volunteering together can give you a new perspective on your relationship.
I’m sure you’re probably saying “what does volunteering have anything to do with my relationship?” Well, I think you’d be surprised how much a little perspective can change your attitude. When we get frustrated in our personal situations we tend to let every little thing get on our nerves, even if it’s not really the source of our frustration. It’s human nature to become desensitized to the positive things we have in our life as well as the negative. This means that we may “forget” how good we really have it since we’re so used to it.
Volunteering is great for your relationship on multiple levels. First of all, the ability to go out and help others is great for everyone to do, regardless of your situation. Second, volunteering allows you to see the hardships that other people are going through. Most of the time what you’ll see in volunteering is going to be much worse then the little annoying things that we get upset about in our relationships. Helping people with their more serious problems puts yours into perspective, and can help you see that the things you’re dealing with aren’t big enough to overcome. Lastly, volunteering forces you to just spend more time together in a different environment. Anytime you can bond and spend time with each other is a plus.
With all the bickering that we do in our daily lives, sometimes we forget the real struggles that people are going through in our community every single day. You may not think this has a lot to do with your happiness in your own relationship, but it definitely does. Whether it’s your relationship, or society in general, our happiness is derived from our emotions with those people around us. By getting involved in your community (and getting involved as a couple) you give yourselves a more important reason to come together. Being able to come together for that reason brings you closer in your relationship. The perspective that you get from helping others in a worse situation than you makes you appreciate all the good things you have in your life, including your partner. Something as simple and seemingly unrelated like volunteering can propel you both to a more fulfilling life together.
Come back tomorrow for the final article in our Relationship Building series. Part VII focuses on rekindling the puppy love with your partner as an important part of keeping your relationship strong.
