10 Ways to Support Your Partner
For couples who have children here's a top ten list (in no particular order) of ways to support your partner. This article was adapted from the book Mother Nurture
by Rick Hanson, Ph.D., Jan Hanson, M.S. and Ricki Pollycove, M.D.When a child has a need or a problem, dive in. For example, you be the one to tend to your child in a restaurant. If your partner offers a suggestion, take in what's useful in his or her comment, and keep diving in.
Pick an everyday childrearing or housework task and start doing it routinely with little fanfare.
Set up the babysitting, take the lead in telling your kids that you're going out, and be the last one out the door.
Try to have your opening move be one of interest, support, empathy, and what you agree with – rather than withdrawal, detached analysis, or disagreement. Imagine how you'd feel if you were your partner, if you had his or her tasks, day, life. Try to explore any negative feelings in them rather than stepping back from them or trying to fix them quickly so they go away.
Every day, try to ask three questions in a row about your partner's inner experience, such as:
– How did you feel when _______ ?
– Deep down, what did you really want in that situation?
– Can you say more about that?
From start to finish, handle one night a week. It's fine to have take–out and to do things your way (as long as the effects don't spill over onto your partner). If they want to stay home and take a long bath, you're still in charge of the kids and the housework.
A relationship is like a series of volleys in tennis, and it's typically one person in the partnership who puts the ball in play. If it's not you, then be the one to call to see how the other's day is going. Give them a card or small present out of the blue. Be the one to say, “Hey, let's talk.”
Put your partner in a good light. Imagine that the conversation is being recorded and your partner will listen to it; what would their reaction be?
Share some part of your inner experience that is soft, vulnerable, and open. If it makes you squirm a bit to imagine saying it – that's what you ought to say!
Besides the obvious (hugs, etc.), try little massages or back scratches, rubbing your partner's feet, or fluffing their hair. Ask them what they like. With words, tell them things that you like about them, why you're fond of them. Tell them you love them. A lot.
Rick Hanson Rick Hanson, Ph.D., is a psychologist, Senior Fellow of the Greater Good Science Center at UC Berkeley, and New York Times best–selling author. He's been an invited speaker at NASA and Google, and at Oxford, Stanford, Harvard, and other major universities, and he's taught in meditation centers worldwide. His books are available in 28 languages and include Resilient, Hardwiring Happiness, Buddha's Brain, Just One Thing, and Mother Nurture. His work has been featured on the BBC, CBS, NPR, and Radio New Zealand, and he offers the free Just One Thing newsletter with 135,000 subscribers, plus the online Foundations of Well–Being program in positive neuroplasticity that anyone with financial need can do for free.