Marriage Counsellor and Psychologist Shivani Misri Sadhoo

I hate fighting, I hate conflict, I hate being upset because of my partner, I hate all the bad feelings that come up for me while arguing. I hate hearing hurtful things my partner says. As a counsellor, these are some of the common issues that a couple’s therapist often has to hear while counselling couples.

In a counselling session it is very common to hear that when one of the partners says, yes, I am conflict avoidant. Several people are, but not everyone. Some individuals actually like fighting. If you like fighting, you may want to stop reading, unless you wish to peer into the experience of people who have a tough time in high-conflict situations.

In fact, John and Julie Gottman say that how often one fights is not a determinant in the success of your marriage, but rather, it is how one fights. Respect is the defining variable. As long as couples respect each one, fighting in and of itself is not a threat to the marital relationship.

If you are afraid of conflict and strong negative emotions, here are some reasons stated by India’s eminent marriage counselor Shivani Misri Sadhoo who stresses why it is essential to be able to successfully engage your partner and manage strife.

Here are several reasons why fighting with your partner could be good for your relationship.

It Bolsters the Relationship by Increasing the Trust

Constructive fighting that happens within boundaries, or rules, that lets for emotional expression while avoiding emotional victimization, bolsters a relationship. Weathering the storm lets a couple see the clearing skies, and with calm waters approaching, a deeper understanding is visible on the horizon.

Coming through the other aspect of an argument strengthens feelings of trust in the process. Knowing that you can survive makes fighting less threatening. Because it is less threatening you tend to avoid delaying a confrontation and present your concerns earlier to your partner when they are less likely to cause an explosive reaction.

At times arguments erupt like an unforeseen squall on the ocean, blind-siding both the partners. Surviving these surprises enhances resiliency to confrontational situations.

You will Feel Better

Letting off steam and expressing your feelings frees tension, anxiety, and fear. When it happens, you feel “unburdened,” lighter,” “like a weight is off your shoulders.” Not only does this feel better, but it is also a healthier state when anxiety and stress, with accompanying harmful hormones, are dissipated (this does not mean venting or dumping toxic elements on your partner). Keeping emotions bottled up every time often leads to rigidity of the mind, body and soul.

Your Partner will get to know about your Views, Feelings, and Thoughts

When you are able to completely express yourself, your partner will understand the depth of your feelings about the given subject. If you say, in a quiet and unobtrusive way, “I do not like it when you do this,” if your partner hears you, he/she will think you are mildly irritated about certain little things. If you are able to put some volume and intensity into the communication, they will get that this is essential to you.

Fighting has a way to bring out your worst tendencies. But it can also bring out your best attributes once you work through the tough stuff. In this process, you get to know the good, the bad, and the ugly of yourselves and your partners and still love them.

Intimacy Enhances

Fighting tells you what is important for your partner, what they do not like, what they desire, where their limitations are, how flexible they are, what hurts or annoys them, and what they need to feel better or loved. Discovering these aspects breeds a deeper intimacy and appreciation of the other.

Fighting could be a growth process in which your self-understanding, and understanding of your partner improves.

Also, many times the physical coziness that makes up post fighting cement intimacy. And to think most of you believe fighting is a bad thing to be avoided at all costs.

Your Partner is a Separate Entity

After you become comfortable in a relationship, it is easy to think your partner knows your mood, your needs, and your desires. Some people even think they can, or must, be able to read your minds. Luckily, fighting dashes these delusions in an instant.

When faced with someone who is absolutely upset, and telling you in no uncertain terms that they do not agree with your point of view, belief, or behavior, it becomes quite obvious that they are their own person. Sometimes it is difficult to recognize them at all as new sides of their personality emerge. It could be a scary sight.

Enhances your Character

You are able to increase your patience, care, and love by focusing on what is valuable – that you care for this person and wish them to be happy (without losing sight of your own needs).

Fighting is just like forging steel. Initially, there is no strength or flexibility in the unrefined product. As it is constantly heated, folded, and re-formed – like a well-carved sword– a beautiful piece of art is forged that can sustain the shocks and strains of heavy combat without breaking.

It is Completely Human; you can Stop Try to be Perfect

Fighting showcases that you are human and not some perfect angelic or divine being, or that you have the perfect relationship, or that you are above everything. It displays that sometimes you are in a bad mood, stressed out, or simply plain tired.

It displays wherein your psyche lays unresolved issues, whether they be for control, stemming due to insecurity, power, from feeling helpless, or self-esteem, from not being appreciated or respected. Whatever your problems, you are guaranteed that they will come up in an intimate relationship – that is just how it works. It is hoped that it has been demonstrated that fighting is a useful function for healthy relationships. When done skillfully, a chance for a greater understanding and love for your partner is possible. Talking about it is easy. Doing is harder.

**However, every fight is not healthy for your relationship. You need to observe how frequently fights or arguments take place in your relationship and what are the patterns.  If they are too frequent. Then it is a sign that tells you not to wait for any miracle. It is a time when you should seek professional help from a qualified marriage counsellor or a couple’s therapist. ** Marriage Counselor Shivani Misri Sadhoo at Saarthi Counselling Services is there to guide and help you if you are experiencing too much of a fight or constraints in your relationship.

Your Counselor Is Now Just Skype/Video Call Away

Feel free to call Counselor Shivani Misri Sadhoo at +91-8860875040 for telephonic or video support and to book an online counselling session to address any relationship issues, emotional and psychological challenges.

Every relationship has some rough patches. Sometimes, rough patches can stretch into weeks, months, even rough years. If you feel you are currently in the middle of a lengthy rough patch and you are not able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, it is a good time to stop and evaluate what you want from your marriage. At what stage do you take a step back and evaluate where you are through an objective lens? Sometimes it takes a lot more than perspective, sometimes you need to look for the red flags.

Here are the possible signs in this blog shared by India’s top Marriage Counselor Shivani Misri Sadhoo indicates you could be in a loveless marriage.

Couples Therapist Shivani says, be honest with yourself and do a rigorous inventory of your emotions. Although this exercise is not easy, it is far, far easier than staying in a relationship where you are putting nothing in and getting nothing out.

If you feel like you identify with more than one of them (or many), open a dialogue with your partner, look for a marriage counselor and reach out for additional help.

You Cannot Fill the Silence

If you have started to realize that during dinner, long drives, evenings on the sofa, any time spent together, all go in silence and neither of you makes an effort to fill it with quality conversation – this is the sign of a problem. It is unrealistic to hope for great, easy, flowing dialogues anytime you two spend an hour together, but the complete reverse is not symbolic of a healthy and happy marriage.

You are Preoccupied with Other Issues

A better replacement for looking directly at our own problems is looking directly at other people’s problems. If you are actively looking out for opportunities to tuck into some hot gossip with close friends or family, trying to insert yourself in their problem or their solution, then you have to take a step back and ask yourself why you are devoting so much of your time to these distractions.

Feeling Antsy

If you are experiencing itchiness, simply being in your skin is like wearing too-tight clothes, you might be repressing some emotions. Your subconscious is trying to convey to you something that you are not ready to hear (or to admit for yourself). Feelings of restlessness may be a signal to you that you are overlooking something that needs your attention.

You get Intimate Hardly Once a Month or none at all

Definitely, none of the couples are having the same insanely exciting and toe-curling sex that they did at the beginning of their relationship – but abstaining totally takes your foot off the gas. Sex is a physical expression of the love you pledged to each other in your vows, so if you have put your sex life on the backburner for far too long (even if you are still practicing the other forms of your love like friendship, listening, laughing) this is the time to re-prioritize intimacy.

Everything your Partner do or say gets on Your Nerves

Part of marriage is getting annoyed by your partner; it is literally the price for entry. But it is another thing completely when all the time they make a noise, ask questions, snore in bed or load the dishwasher (improperly), it feels like your skin is rushing. If you notice enough of these annoyances in a row (say, a couple of weeks straight) you could be in danger of entering the red zone.

It does not feel Fun anymore

Relationships include a lot of work – and anyone who has been married for any duration of time can attest – but you work at it because it’s fun. Because you enjoy each other, and the relationship brings light and laughter to your lives. But if the fun has gone, the laughter has died down, and the light is dimming, then what’s the point of all those works?

You are way too Close to have an Emotional Affair

Even if you are not comfortable acting on your feelings (and moving towards a physical affair) you feel very attracted to a person – or people – outside of your relationship. You could be leaning on this person for support, divulging a plenty of intimate details, and deepening the connection you feel with this person. Your partner could not accuse you of any inappropriate behavior, but you know you cannot be honest with yourself about how you feel about this individual. That is a strong sign you need to seriously evaluate your commitment.

Your Counselor Is Now Just Skype/Video Call Away

Feel free to call Counselor Shivani Misri Sadhoo at +91-8860875040 for telephonic or video support and to book an online counselling session to address any relationship issues, or emotional and psychological challenges.

There are several ways in a relationship that helps in fostering love and care for each other. And one of the smallest yet most powerful ways to show your love and care towards your partner is through a tender or gentle touch.

Shivani says, there are moments in any relationship be it of a husband or wife or any other relationship, when someone is in a crisis or a stressful phase sometimes learn and observe how unbelievable the power of human touch could be. Let us take the example of a small baby who is unwell and is certainly not able to express his problems clearly, except with a cry.  Always feels assured, the moment his mother touches the baby as the baby not only feels assured but for him it acts as a life-sustaining thing. Often, you have heard the qualities of a “mother’s touch”. This is exactly the same.

In the same way, a tender touch plays an important role even in a couple’s life. Not necessarily a tender touch for your marriage, that leads to something towards, more in the bedroom only, but the kind of touch that connects and reassures you as a couple and as a soulmate.

Not only does a tender touch cultivate deeper intimacy; it assists you in communicating with each other on another level. It sustains and boosts your connection. And it is an essential part of a healthy, happy, and content marriage.

India’s leading marriage counselor and couple’s therapist Shivani Misri Sadhoo shares the reason why a tender touch cultivates and leads towards greater intimacy.

Touch Helps you Feel, Secure, Known, Assured, and Loved

Tender touch conveys your love for each other and creates a level of emotional safety that opens the avenues for deeper intimacy. It is this deep kind of emotional security that further leads to more physical desire for one another in the long run. Although every married individual wishes to experience a healthy sex life with their spouse, it is crucial to build that foundation.

When you feel valued, you are more likely to show vulnerability to one another. Affectionate touch does not shut you down; rather, it opens you to that intimacy you are craving from one another–on several levels.

To be feel seen, heard, and truly known by your partner is a powerful component in the health of your marriage. Small daily moments and habits that are meaningful build upon each other and lead to something wonderful in your marriage. Use the power of touch to show your spouse that you are watching, listening to, caring, and valuing him or her.

Like a tiny infant baby, touch is essential to your well-being in your marriage; without that daily contact, one cannot thrive.

It Keeps you Connected

A tender touch awakens you and reminds you of why you fell in love in the first place. It is a way to tell each other, “I am for you.” It is a constant reminder that you are not enemies– you are in the same team.

Some ways you can stay connected as a couple with a tender touch are:

• A massage posts a long or tiring day at work
• Comforting hugs when your partner is down
• Touching your spouse when you are talking or laughing
• Holding hands in town
• Putting an arm around your partner while discussing an issue that bothers him/her

Tender touch is specifically important when you are going through a difficult time in your life or marriage. If you have been experiencing plenty of conflicts, problems with your kids or extended family, health issues, or your professional life, stay connected by making physical contact daily–two to three minutes total, at least. You will be surprised how much you accomplish emotionally by intentionally touching each other every day.

It Conveys Affection Sans any Agenda

Tender touch is not merely meant to lead straight to the bedroom; instead, it is meant to convey affection without any agenda attached. It is meant to be a selfless, supportive and kind act instead of a means to an end.

You touch your spouse because you love them and cherish them; if you merely touch them when you have an agenda, they may start to feel resentful of the fact that you only make physical contact when you desire something.

Practice tender touch without expecting anything for an outcome that is sexual in nature. Be playful and affectionate. Passion is an essential component of any marriage, but it is not the only form of physical affection you and your loved one needs to share.

As an extra bonus, the more physical affection you share without any agenda attached, the more you and your spouse will desire each other in that passionate way. And you will certainly find that you inevitably build anticipation for those private moments later on while you are showing one another true affection.

Your Counselor Is Now Just Skype/Video Call Away

Feel free to call Counselor Shivani Misri Sadhoo at +91-8860875040 for telephonic or video support and to book an online counselling session to address any relationship issues, or emotional and psychological challenges.

In life “feeling bad about yourself” generally comes very easily and in most time, it comes silently. When someone hurts you or criticizes you or if you fail then feeling bad about yourself is a common outcome. To some extent feeling bad about ourselves is good if it helps us to bring self-analysis and re-strategy and re-plan – but if this feeling sustains for long then it can severely damage our self-esteem and confidence level or worse it may put us in a vicious cycle of bad feelings, weak self-confidence and poor results.

In this article renowned psychologist, marriage counsellor and relationship expert  Shivani Misri Sadhoo share 5 ways to feel better about yourself. Here they are:

1.      Always trust yourself

Never ever stop believing in yourself, and remember every outcome in life has many things involved in it, like time, situation, resources, you and others. Hence if you fail, try to shift your emotions and mental energy to analyze the whole situation – not just yourself but others too and try to figure out what could be an alternate approach or strategy to succeed.

2.      Understand that disappointments are a part of life

Observe and study successful people’s life and you will find that every successful person has dealt with disappointments at some point of life, but that has never stopped them. Rather they have learned to use the bad situations to get to the next level of life. The trick is to process your feelings, then put them into action.

3.      Learn to forgive yourself

Remember that our mistakes do not define us. They do not make us good people or bad people. If we learn and grow from them, then they make us better people. To develop positive self-views, you must keep in mind that everyone makes mistakes. Forgive yourself, and give yourself credit for trying not to make the same mistakes again.

4.      Watch Your Thoughts

Your thinking and thought process will never be 100 percent positive all the time. You must learn to dismiss the negative thoughts and stay open to other ideas that will assist you to move in a positive way. Start identifying negative thoughts and use your mind to challenge them.

5.      Don’t Expect Too Much

Desires can be a powerful motivating tool, but wanting or expecting something too much can be very hurtful and very pressurizing, so do not live beyond your means or wish the unattainable. Seek your desire, but keep your integrity.

Are you finding it difficult to get along with your mother-in-law? Do you wish you could have less stress over your relationship with her?

Whenever we think about a mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship, unfortunately, most of the time a negative image comes to our mind. In-laws can be the cause of a great deal of stress and frustration especially, to a young mother if she is not equipped to balance the demands of child-caring,
house-cleaning, working and nurturing the relationships of her loved ones.

Mothers-in-law may be difficult to manage as some may benchmark you against their high standards, pick on everything you do (especially if you are living with them) and interfere when you try to discipline your kids. But there are some ways to help resolve disputes with your mother-in-law.

Renowned, marriage counsellor and relationship expert Shivani Misri Sadhoo shares 5 ways to have a better mother-in-law and daughter-in-law relationship. Here, they are:

1. Pick Your Battles

Not everything is worth arguing over. If your mother-in-law prefers you to follow a certain criterion when you keep your stuff.  Particularly, if you live in her place, give yourself space and time to accommodate her preferences.

When it comes to arguments over issues which are really important like the choice of school for your kid, you can at least remind her in a polite manner that you listened to her for a lot of  other things and followed them. Can she let you have your own way for this one thing?

2. Try to Woo Her At Regular Intervals

You might be thinking. Is it really possible? Nevertheless, give it a second thought. Every woman likes to be loved and appreciated, not just by their husbands and sons but even by their daughters-in-law. Keep aside your pride and ego, and ask her out for her favourite activity or thing once in a while.

Set aside time and a reasonable budget (you don’t need to go overboard) to take her to eat her favourite cuisine, shop for clothes, travel on an affordable holiday or treat her to a movie or a concert of her choice.

Give a beautiful bouquet of flowers once in a while and let her show it in front of her friends. Even a
small act of love, like buying her lunch or dinner when she is sick, will help
to open her heart towards you.

3.  Never Try To Out-Argue Her. Especially In Front of Others

As Indians, we value respect towards our elders a lot. More so as a daughter-in-law. Even if your mother-in-law is wrong, unless this is a life-threatening event, let her have the last say and absorb your words. When she is cooled down and you too, try interacting with her nicely, and ask her to consider your point of view too.

Yes, it means you have to eat humble pie, but if you value your relationship with her, somebody needs to take a step back first. After some time, when she feels you are not a threatening daughter-in-law, she may change her stance on how she responds to you.

4.  Find Allies

If you can make an ally with anyone else to intervene on your behalf, for example, your husband, children or siblings-in-law, do it in advance. Build goodwill with them so they can vouch you’re not a bad daughter-in-law when you get into a dispute with your mother-in-law.

5.   Discuss Your Concerns

There are many external factors that throw a spanner into your relationship with your mother-in-law. These could include stresses in getting a job, managing demands of work and family, health issues of yourself or family members, or major changes diet, going back to your studies etc.

If you do face external concerns, share them with your mother-in-law. Try to let her understand what’s going on in your life and how you’re trying your best to figure these things out. She may just give you that little bit of extra space you need at the moment and at best can also, provide you with a good idea.