Communication in Relationships – Talking Keeps the Love Alive

I've been watching a lot of Mad Men lately. At first it's because I was intrigued and wanted a glimpse of how the world of advertising worked in the 1960s, way before the Internet changed the world. And then I became fascinated by the characters and how they all interacted with each other. I'm especially fascinated by the interaction between Don and Betty Draper.

I've only just started on Season Two of the show, but I already have an idea of what's going to happen to these characters later on. The signs were all there as early as Season One. Betty is unhappy because there's no one she could open up to when it comes to what she really feels and thinks. Don isn't exactly unhappy, but he's totally incapable of sharing himself with others.

People who have tracked Mad Men up to its latest season would know what happened to this couple. Although the show was set in the 1960s, when mores and gender roles are different from what they are now, the underlying problem in the Draper marriage is still something that many couples experience today. Really, if you can't talk to your spouse or the person you consider your significant other, your relationship is doomed.

Communication Is Essential in Relationships

It's been said before and it bears repeating: Communication is essential in relationships. Communicating with your partner on a regular basis keeps the relationship alive. It's not about sex, it's not about having kids together, and it's not really about spending a lot of time together. If the two of you don't talk honestly and openly with each other, you might as well pack your bags and go.

If two people who are supposed to be together stop talking with honesty and openness with each other, one or both will soon feel shut out from the other. This lack of communication, in turn, generates suspicion, erodes trust in the relationship, fosters loneliness, and makes two people who are supposed to be intimate with each other become strangers.

How can one be happy with a stranger?

Talking Keeps the Love Alive

Needless to say, the only way to keep the communication alive in your relationship is to talk with your partner. This doesn't mean calling or sending your partner texts, instant messages or tweets every five minutes. Taking the time to see how the other is doing often goes a long way.

My parents are the same age as the Draper children – Sally and Bobby – would have been. But after 34 years of marriage, I think they got their communication thing right, somehow. They fight, as all married couples do, and they have followed their own careers.

But they have established their communication rituals over the years, like having coffee together in the morning before leaving for work, eating dinner together on weekends, and calling each other during lunch breaks. Whether we believe it or not, we are all creatures of habit and little rituals like these go a long way in keeping the love in a relationship alive.

And then, there's the fact that your significant other should also be your best friend. No matter how it is or what it is, you should be open to your SO about what you're thinking and feeling. Even though we have girlfriends and male friends, our SO should not have to learn from other people something he or she should have heard first from you.

Communication is essential in relationships. This is one thing we should always remember.

When did you last talk to your SO?

(Image: Breaking Curfew)