When your spouse is struggling with substance use, the path forward can feel overwhelming and lonely. You may witness destructive behaviors, broken promises, and a dwindling of the bond you once shared. It's easy to feel lost, but your love and determination can be strong factors in helping your partner find a path to recovery. Here's where you can start:

1. Educate Yourself

Understanding addiction is crucial. It's not a willpower issue or a moral failing. Addiction is a complex disease that alters the brain's reward circuitry. Learn about the specific substance your spouse relies on, the cycle of addiction, and treatment options. This knowledge strengthens your ability to have realistic expectations and supportive conversations.

2. Approach with Compassion, Not Judgment

Confrontations fueled by anger or blame rarely lead to positive changes. Instead, choose a calm time when your spouse is not under the influence and express your concerns with love. Focus on how their substance use...

Kate and I have been together now for almost 14 years, and married for almost 13. We have a blended family, 3 kiddos, full time jobs, a full course load in graduate school, and yet our marriage is thriving more than ever. 

Lucky? 

Nope. 

Not even close. 

Kate and I are extremely intentional with meeting each other's needs on a daily basis, and as often as we can, we make time and prioritize "us" time for dates and alone time. Over the years what a date looks like can drastically change ranging on the age of our kiddos and what we have going on in our lives. But the fact remains that we continue to pour into each other and invest into our relationship to keep it growing and moving forward. We made a commitment to prioritizing our relationship and it has paid dividends. 

So what is your story? Where are you at with your spouse? Do you prioritize spending quality time with them? Do you actively engage in bettering your relationship and yourself for your spouse? If you do, great! Keep...

Feeling overwhelmed? Me too. This morning I woke up, and immediately felt anxious and overwhelmed. Like many of you, I am balancing a career, kids, my marriage, friendships, and graduate school on top of everything. Keeping everything in check, can, at times, feel extremely challenging. 

If you're currently in the same boat as me, I want to share some reminders and tactics I consistently do to help myself get out of the feeling of overwhelm and into a place of gaining clarity, taking back control of my feelings, and working towards identifying what triggers are being set off to make me feel this way. 

• I remind myself that these are feelings and that these feelings or state of mind will pass. In other words, I'm not going to feel like this forever - as long as I recognize how I'm feeling and decide to take action. If you don't take action on how you're feeling, there is a good chance that you going to continue to feel overwhelmed and anxious because you're not addressing your issues
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In the game of relationships, we are never given a playbook with how best we can have critical conversations with our spouse. Communication and conflict resolution are both skills that need to be learned and they aren't something you're just going to be great at - especially dealing with conflict with your spouse. 

Now, is it true that some of us are naturally better communicators or better at handling conflict than others? The short answer is, yes. However, just like any skill, the more you practice and focus on that skill, the better you're going to get at it and the more comfortable you're going to become using the skill. 

This week I've been sharing tips for you and your spouse to press the reset button in your relationship if you haven't been getting along lately. They are the following: 

1. Clarity - in order to understand what's going on in your relationship and why you're fighting, you need to get clarity. One of the best ways to get clarity is to start moving your body (i.e...