by India Bonham

Verbal Valentines Any Time of the Year

The Hendricks duo, Gay and Katie, offer up their big tip to maintaining a great relationship using what they call, “Verbal Valentines.” This is a cute name for something you can every day without lifting a finger or completing a “honey-do.” All you do is think of something you value and appreciate about your loved one and then verbalize it to them when they are receptive (that is, not while they are in the middle of solving the world’s problems or paying the bills). The Hendricks claim their method has been key to their relationship going well and strong for 29 years and counting. They provide examples and elaborate on the instructions, so read all about the Hendricks’ Verbal Valentines technique at the Gaiam Stream of Consciousness blog.

Telling the Difference Between an Abusive Relationship & a Healthy One

Clare Murphy — an expert on relationships, specializing in psychological abuse, one-sided power and control in relationships — has an insightful blog on these subjects in which she shares from personal experiences, education and counseling on how to identify these negatives and work toward understanding and eliminating them. In Abusive vs. Healthy Relationships: What’s the Difference? Clare addresses the question, “Doesn’t everyone psychologically abuse sometimes?” Check it out for many interesting posts.

That Taboo Subject: Women Who Abuse

Although it seldom spoken about let alone addressed, some abusers turn out to be women and the aftermath is not pretty. Chris Norris writes about this disturbing trend and shares his own personal experiences with it, as well as others’ experiences. Some stats should get people thinking: American men have a twenty-eight percent chance of being hit by a woman in his life at some point; doubling in the last twenty years are the quantity of girls ages 10 to 17 arrested for aggravated assault. These are not positive trends no matter how you look at it. Chris lets us in on what happens in the minds of the male victims and reminds us that the taboo is still so pervasive, there can be nearly no one to talk with about it (or no one who would take the story seriously). Read Chris Norris’ whole story, Women Who Hit Men, on Marie Claire.