Love Relationships
Is love a fancy or a feeling? In other words, is love all about the emotion that you feel when you are with someone, or do you have to make a conscious decision to love that person when the “feeling”…
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Author Archive: Todd Pheifer
How much Detail of your Past Relationships should you tell your Partner
At their core, successful relationships need to be built on trust, honesty, and respect. Granted, this can take years to develop, and oftentimes it takes a conscious decision to trust somebody. However, the people that can share the details of…
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Why more Men are Starting to Stay Home while their Wives Work
October 26, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
If people are students of history, they will realize that the roles of men and women have changed a number of times over the years. As humanity has worked its way through various eras, men and women have shifted when…
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First Date Conversation Topics
Small-talk can be tough First date conversation can certainly be awkward. Everyone wants to make a good first impression, but it isn’t always clear how that should be done. Should you do more listening than talking? If you do, the…
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How to Support someone who has just Lost a Baby
The loss of child can be devastating, and even using the word “devastating” probably doesn’t accurately describe the experience of this kind of loss. People who lose a baby may experience a change in outlook that will be with them…
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Is it better to have a Large or Small Group of Friends – Large
October 2, 2015 Friends and Peers
This is a hard topic to write on only from the standpoint of definitions. A “friend” is a person who is more than an acquaintance, that you have some sort of relationship with over a period of time. The challenge…
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What is a Passive Aggressive Friendship and how to Deal with it
September 22, 2015 Friends and Peers
The concept of being “passive-aggressive” was once categorized by psychologists as a disorder but has in more recent times been re-defined as a behavioral pattern. It is defined as a pattern of behavior in which the person can be sullen,…
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Friendship Issues Advice
September 14, 2015 Friends and Peers
Making friends takes work, pure and simple. You will not arrive in a new environment and automatically pick up a group of friends. It takes intent, diligence, patience, and follow-through. When those things happen, friendships begin to develop and a…
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Friendship Issues Advice
September 13, 2015 Friends and Peers
Where is the relational breakpoint between being an acquaintance and comfortably declaring a relationship to be a “real” friendship? When do you state that you “know” someone and when do you confidently say, “I have a FRIEND who…” Friendship is…
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Getting Past Internal Issues with Friendship
September 13, 2015 Friends and Peers
There are a lot of different friendships out there. Some are “close” friends, some are casual friends, some are friends that you only do certain things with, like a bowling league or a class. All of these friends have issues,…
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Dealing with a Broken Friendship
September 9, 2015 Friends and Peers
We spend a great deal of time and energy building friendships. Therefore, when there is conflict or circumstance that leads to a breaking down of the friendship, it can be very difficult to accept. Complicating the issue is the fact…
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Communicating with Negative People and the Effect it has on your Happiness
Do you adapt to your surroundings? Most people do on some level. The reason this is relevant is that dealing with negative people has a lot to do with how much you change when you are in different environments. Of…
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How to Save Money on School Uniforms
There are many costs to consider when people have children and raise them through their educational life. While many children attend public schools in America that are technically paid by tax dollars, there may still be some costs that are…
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The Pros and Cons of Text Messages
Text messaging has become a standard form of communication for some people. Rather than dialing a number, people rattle off a quick “text” to their friends and family. These messages can often be very brief, and can include specialized abbreviations…
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How to Improve Communication in a Relationship
Communication is a crucial part of any relationship, whether it be between co-workers, significant others, or friends. Parents and children must also communicate, and sometimes that particular communication is the most complex, as it can change a great deal over…
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Long Distance Love can it Work – Yes
When I was a freshman in college, I met a beautiful girl at the very end of the school year who lived in another state. What was I to do? Of course, we were infatuated with each other but what…
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Differences between Personal and Electronic Communication
This is a particularly tough subject in this modern time because the two “types” of communication are so often intertwined. You could make an argument that communication as a general category is really about the exchange of information between two…
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Communicating in Text Message Style is it Ruining Real Communication – No
The first question that we have to ask in regards to this issue is, what is truly defined as “real” communication? Is it communicating is a certain language or a certain style? Does it mean conforming to specific grammar, spelling,…
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How to Improve Communication with your Kids
Communication with children will always be, to a certain extent, a work in progress. This can be frustrating for parents who know what they want to convey to their children but have a hard time getting the message across. Sometimes…
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Using Humor to Defuse a Tense Discussion or Argument
The tension is high, and everyone can feel it. There is an awkward silence, and people have a hard time making eye contact. At just the right moment you quietly make a tactful joke. A couple of people chuckle and…
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Enjoying Marital Bliss after the Honeymoon Stage
June 19, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
The dictionary defines bliss as “supreme happiness” or “utter joy or contentment.” There are certainly many people who are “happily” married, but there are probably fewer who describe their marriage as blissful, as defined in these dictionary terms. Using those…
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Book Reviews the five Love Languages by Gary Chapman
June 18, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
It isn’t difficult to find a marriage author, speaker, or “expert” who touts the importance of communication as a key part of a successful marriage. However, the specifics and methodologies of that communication can be the challenging part, rather than…
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Complaints and their Impact on Relationships
Every relationship has their share of conflicts and differences of opinion. The strength of the relationship is often determined by how those involved deal with conflict and how they find resolution or compromise. Of course, conflict comes in many forms…
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Why People say yes when they want to say no
Example Scenario A Person #1: I got these new curtains yesterday on clearance at the store. What do you think of them? Person #2: (Thinking: Ick. Those are really nasty curtains. I wouldn’t be caught dead with them in my…
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Should Couples Live together before getting Married – No
May 20, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
Is this the real question? When people start getting “serious”, they start to wonder if they have a permanent future. Some couples wonder if they should think about living together before thinking about marriage. However, there is a better question…
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How to Avoid Conflict at a Family Reunion
Conflict seems to be an inevitable part of relationships, and close family ties are not exempt from various types of squabbles and differences of opinion. Some of these differences can surface at the family reunion, which is supposed to be…
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Why People Plan Family Reunions
It is a time-honored ritual in modern society for families to get together and have a reunion of some sort. These gathering can be both small or large, and can contain multiple generations or branches of a family. Some reunions…
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Friendship Issues Advice
April 14, 2015 Friends and Peers
The Internet has been an amazing tool of productivity and communication since it’s inception not so many years ago. People have been able to engage in dialogue and commerce all over the world, and individuals have been able to access…
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How to Stay Connected after a Family Reunion
The family reunion can be a wonderful time to see relatives and renew relationships that may have existed for decades. Granted, the family reunion is not always a fun time for some people as it can be a reminder of past…
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How to Build Harmonious Families
April 9, 2015 Marriage and Divorce
Family is one of the most important aspects of some people’s lives. For some, it is THE most important thing because it defines who they are, where they came from, and what their legacy might be in the future. Family…
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