At what point does the “Player” give up the game?

….Actually never. The reason I say this is because the game never ends. I always figured that by the age of 30 I would be settled down. Maybe have a couple little Bams running around the house. All that kind of mushy stuff.
When I was 20 I lived like I knew tomorrow wasn’t going to be an option for me. In other words I had a lot of fun. My subconscious understood that I was basically getting all the shit out of my system now, so that when the time came for me to act like I had some kinda’ sense I’d be ready.
But now I still feel like I’m not ready. A lot of it has to do with issues that I have within concerning relationships. But way too much of it has to do with the games that women play. And I don’t mean little girls who don’t know any better. But I mean grown ass women.
Why am I still dealing with issues that I was dealing with ten years ago? Some women are gone in the head. And the scary part about it is that the great majority of them have no clue. Now this same gone in the head female is a mother. Damn. I’m glad it’s not mine.
I’m scared of the thought of having a baby’s mama. No Good.
So I’ve taken another route to dating…..Being honest.
Don’t ask what you don’t want the real answer to.
Many pros and cons to being honest. But the hardest part is hoping that the young lady on the other end is on the same page. Most of the time they are not.
I wish that more people in the world thought like me. Who doesn’t. But that’s not the case. So before I go out on the weekend (which is rare), I have to get myself all pumped up to play. It reminds me of when I played football. I had to go thru a ritual to get myself ready to go into battle. It’s just now the battle is on a whole other playing field.
It’s all a game. Of course there are different objectives and rules. But it’s still a game.
I have buddies that are in their 30s and it’s still a big game for them. Some of them already have women, married or not. But they still feel the need to play. I think it makes us feel good to know that we can still be dominant MEN. And on the other hand ladies still feel the need to test if they still got it. These test come in the form of games.
If I see you in a club and we make eye contact, the game begins. I don’t want to play. But if I wanna get what I want. I have to. It’s not an option.
But I’m tired of it. I should be able to say hey, “I just wanna fool around. If something more happens, then we’ll see what’s up.” And she should be able to be down with it or kick me to the curb.
But because women deal with so many weak ass men who can’t handle the truth, then they don’t learn how to speak it when necessary. That’s another story.
I just wish I could find a real woman, without any issues (yeah right). Until then I’ll keep playing the game. But when I play. I play to win…..

People need to love and be loved. Yet many people have trouble doing so. This is by no means an exhaustive list…but it is a start.

1. Choose a partner wisely and well.
We are attracted to people for all sorts of reasons. One could be that they remind us of someone from our past. Another that they spend money on us — buying gifts and making us feel important. Evaluate a potential partner as you would a friend; look at their character, personality, morals, their generosity of spirit, the relationship between their words and actions, their relationships with others (family is important).

2. Know your partner’s beliefs about relationships.
Different people have different outlooks on relationships. And please believe that this can sometimes be conflicting. You don’t want to fall in love with someone who expects lots of dishonesty in relationships; they’ll create it where it doesn’t exist.

3. Don’t confuse sex with love.
Men are especially good at differentiating this. Especially in the beginning of a relationship, attraction and pleasure in sex –aka lust– are often mistaken for love.

4. Know your needs and make sure they are heard.
A relationship is not a guessing game. Men and women fear stating their needs and as a result, their partners are left clueless. The latter result is disappointment and possible anger at a partner for not having met their “unstated” needs. In order to become close as a couple, you must be honest with one another…please remember that your partner is not a mind reader.

5. View yourselves as a team.
A team brings people together with a goal. They may have a different perspective or strengths, but they continue pressing forward to teach and learn together.

6. Know how to respect and manage differences.
This is the true key to a successful relationship. Disagreements don’t end relationships however, name-calling does. Learn how to handle the negative feelings that may arise from the differences. Stonewalling or avoiding conflicts is NOT managing them.

7. Communicate.
If you don’t understand or like something your partner is doing, ask about it and why he or she is doing it. Talk it out, don’t assume.

8. Solve problems as they occur.
Don’t let anger simmer. Most of what goes wrong in relationships can be traced to hurt feelings. This can lead to walls being built and eventually breaking the relationship…or creating enemies.

9. Learn to negotiate.
Modern relationships no longer rely on roles. Couples should create their own roles. Every decision should be though through and negotiated by both parties. Because people’s needs are fluid and change
over time, and life’s demands change too, good relationships are negotiated and renegotiated all the time.

10. Listen — truly listen– to your partner’s concerns and complaints without judgment.
Much of the time, just having someone listen is all we need. It opens the door to confiding, confiding to trust and trust to a better outlook. Empathy is crucial especially in understand things from your partner’s perspective.

11. Work hard to maintain closeness.
Closeness doesn’t happen by itself. In absence, people drift apart and are susceptible to affairs. A good relationship isn’t an end goal; it is a lifelong process maintained via regular attention.

12. Take a long-range view on life together.
A marriage is an agreement to spend a future together. Check out your dreams with each other regularly to make sure you’re both on the same track. Update your dreams regularly!

13. Never underestimate the power of good grooming.
Enough said.

14. Sex is good. Pillow talk is better.
Sex is easy, intimacy is difficult. Intimacy requires honesty, openness, self-disclosure, fears, sadnesses as well as hopes and dreams.

15. Never go to sleep angry.
Trust me, you don’t want the spat to continue in the morning. Try steps 8 and 10 again.

16. Apologize.
Anyone can make a mistake but repairing that mistake is crucial. Apologies can be clumsy, funny, even sarcastic—but willingness to make up after an argument is central to every happy relationship.

17. Some dependency is good, but complete dependency is bad.
We’re all dependent to a degree — on friends, close family members, partners — and men have just as many dependency needs as women.

18. Maintain self-respect and self-esteem.
It’s easier for someone to like you and to be around you when you like yourself. Research has shown that the more roles people fill, the more sources of self-esteem they have. Get out and volunteer or join a committee at work. Make sure to be SURE of yourself.

19. Enrich your relationship by bringing into it new interests from outside the relationship.
The more passions in life that you have and share, the richer your relationship will be. It is unrealistic to expect one person to meet all of your needs in life.

20. Cooperate.
Share responsibilities. Relationships work ONLY when they are two-way streets. You must give as well as take.

21. Be spontaneous.

22. Keep up with your health.
Exercise…this ties in with number 18 as well. When you look better, you feel better.

23. Recognize that all relationships have their ups and downs.
You cannot be on “cloud 9″ all the time. No relationship is perfect. Working together through the hard times will make the relationship even stronger.

24. Make good sense of a bad relationship.
Examine it as a reflection of your beliefs about you. Don’t just run away from a bad relationship. You’ll either run straight into another bad one or turn your anger onto your next partner. Use it as a mirror to look at yourself. Understand what part of you is creating this relationship. Change yourself before you change your relationship.

25. Understand that love is not an absolute.
Love is not a limited commodity that you’re in of or out of. You must learn how to treat one another. If you learn new ways to interact, the feelings can come flowing back, often stronger than before.

I am always surfing the net tyring to find information to help the broke/cheap romantic.

I ran across these cute ideas to celebrate your love on a budget:

My best anniversary idea was actually one I suggested to a friend for her first anniversary with her boyfriend. I told her to get a big piñata and fill it with her boyfriends favorite chocolates, confetti, streamers, rose petals and other fun stuff. The next thing to do was to write 12 reasons why she loves him (12 for the number of months they’ve been together) on pieces of cardstock and put them in the piñata too. She could then blindfold her boyfriend and get him to try to hit it. When it breaks open he will be showered with all the things that were inside it!

My girlfriend LOVES Hershey’s kisses. So I bought a couple of big bags and counted out 101 of them (and ate any spares!). Next I cut out 101 small card heart shapes, which I then wrote 101 things I love about her on. For example, I love the way your eyes seem to shine when you smile, I love the way your lips taste, +99 more. A first I thought maybe I’d bitten off more than I could chew, and wondered if id make it to 101. But if you keep a small notepad with you in the day, you can jot down any ideas. Just remember special moments you’ve shared and favorite things to do together and hopefully you’ll get there.
I then glued each heart to the base of each kiss and placed them all in a confetti filled box with a card on the top reading: “101 kisses for 101 things I love about you!” She loved it, but refused to ever eat them as they looked too good to eat.

They say women like the bad boys. The guy that keeps us up crying in the middle of the night because we have no idea where they are. The guy who’s cell phone we wish we could check when it buzzes at all days and times of night. The guy who drinks too much and then stumbles into the house. Ladies, why do we do it to ourselves?

In the news recently, have been Amy Winehouse and Kate Moss. Both whose friends and families are hurt and upset because of their choices in men. Allegations recently have been that Amy’s new husband (of 3 months) has gotten her into drug abuse. Despite this, she remains loyal to him, refusing to go into rehab unless he accompanied her. Kate’s boyfriend has one foot in jail and the other out. These women make you want to bang their heads together. What is it about such highly successful women, who you’d think could have their pick of the fish in the sea that keeps them running back to such men? Neither women are stupid. But are both men equally smart? They both have something to gain from their famous significant others…

Could the appeal of these relationships be that they are so painful and destructive? Psychologists might agree that such cases are part of acting out of deep rooted self-hatred. People who engage in these types of relationship as a form of self-punishment do so usually in response to a notion of perceived personal failure. The fact that Kate and Amy are rich, talented and famous doesn’t matter - maybe, deep down, they don’t think they are worth being treated like a princess (every girl dreams of it…).

One way for women in such relationships to be able to remove themselves wholly from this situation is to address their underlying self-esteem issues through psychotherapy. This can be a long, drawn-out process and it’s frequently too painful for people to address what they have spent so long burying.

It’s no coincidence that both Amy and Kate have been associated with other self-destructive behaviors, such as alcohol or drug misuse. Their thought process is such that if someone else isn’t hurting them, they do it to themselves. These kinds of relationships are often also associated with co-dependency, whereby one person enters into a tumultuous relationship with another which they then become consumed by, rather than address their own problems.

This is a lesson for us all. We can never find someone suitable to love until we start to love ourselves. Maybe this is a lesson that we need to reiterate to both Amy and Kate. At this point, all their friends and families can do is hope this happens before things get any worse for them.

You ever had a crush on someone that you work with? Of course you have. Who hasn’t? But how do you deal with this? As a man, I understand that the ego is a huge issue when dealing with anything pertaining to the opposite sex.
Just recently I had a crush on a beautiful co worker. She works in another department. And my female buddy in that department did a little probing for me. Come to find out she was single, really sweet, and she was asking about me as well. We would give each other the eye as we passed each other. It seemed like we were both searching for reasons to be in the copy room at the same time. All the little signs that someone is waiting for you to make that first move. So after 3 days of playing, I made that move. We could never find the time or space to be alone long enough to talk. So I emailed her.
I basically told her that I know that she knows nothing about me, and I don’t know her. But I figured that it was worth a shot to ask her out. So I did.
Now granted I understand all the issues that come into play when dealing with someone you work with. But I work in the film industry. A lot of times we work jobs for months, weeks, or even days at a time. So it’s a lot of work hard play hard cause you don’t get the chance to spend much time with the people you like. Many of them are not locals. This was the same situation.
Well….She shot me down. It was really nice how she did it. But I was shocked. Honestly. Still am, a little. In her email response she speaks about not being ready to get into a relationship and all this other crap. I just asked her out. Didn’t mention a thing about sex or a relationship. Just hanging out. I was like what the hell was that all about.
Then one of my other female co-workers told me that I was moving too fast. And I came off kinda creepy. I’m supposed to “play the game.” She told me.
W.T.F.? I’m 30 years old. I don’t play games.
I responded to her email just saying that it’s good and I respect the fact that she was honest. But I still think she’s attractive. And I won’t start acting awkward or anything. It’s good.
But now all of a sudden she can’t look me in the eye. She acts freaked out when I come around. All kinds of weird stuff. But I’m the creepy one.
Oh well. I guess that’s why I like older women. For the most part they don’t play games. But she’s my age so I thought things would be different. Wrong!!!!
I’ve not followed though on other opportunities to date other women that I’ve worked with. And they were upset with me. Hell, I’m confused.
But you win some and you loose some.
What can you do?
Ladies tell me something…………….

Black Men & White Women

Wow. Where do I begin? I am a black man. And yes I am attracted to white women. But I’m attracted to all kinds of women. All shapes, sizes, skin tones, etc. I have dated outside of my race on numerous occasions. But what I have discovered is that I personally can’t see myself being married to a white woman. Yes love is blind, blah, blah, blah. But with my mentality I feel like I would have to be with a person that lives in my world and understands the everyday struggles I deal with.

My ex was a white girl. And we had quite a few discussions about her not being able to do things when we were together that she can do when she was alone or with her white friends. But that’s a blog all on his own. What I’m trying to say is that we (whites and blacks) can be in the same city yet different worlds.

I sometimes wonder if brothers who do settle down with white women are somehow compromising themselves. What I mean by that is that black people in America are the most stripped race of people on the planet. We have had our history stripped. The great majority of us have no sense of history. We’ve been trained to hate each other, whether we realize it or not, etc, .etc. So on top of that to be with someone who has never had to learn anything about black culture doesn’t seem like it would make black culture better.

Now I’m not saying that it’s the duty of every married black man to put black culture on his back. Or is it?

I have so many thoughts on the subject I could write for days. But I want to know how you all feel about interracial relationships, especially those between black men and women outside of the black race.

Please respond…..

How can you charm a woman? Do they like a daily check-in phone call? Does she secretly wish you’d text her in the middle of the day for no reason but to make her smile? Do they prefer expensive dinners to home-cooked meals? Rock-hard abs? Flowers for no reason?
Identifying women’s turn-ons is complicated, because they all react differently. Some women you wish came with owner’s manuals so you knew exactly how they were wired. Luckily, I’ve done most of the legwork for you and am happy to pass this knowledge on to you.
Top 10 ways to charm a woman

1. Be aware. This means cracking open more than the sports section on the daily paper. Be up on current events and learn the difference between feelings, emotions and thoughts. Women are emotional beings and tend to think things through.
“They are attracted to men who are as smart or smarter”
They are attracted to men who are as smart or smarter than them, and your knowledge of worldly matters will demonstrate your intelligence.
2. Demonstrate humor. Women love a man who can make them laugh. Now don’t fret here if you’re not a stand-up comedian. We all have a certain type of humor. You can be dry, sarcastic, hilariously funny, quick-witted or dark. Being able to poke fun at yourself and just plain old being goofy is a turn-on for women. Keep in mind that all women are not attracted to the same type of humor, so if you don’t vibe, just walk away and try someone else.
3. Have passion. A guy who lives his life with gusto is incredibly appealing. When you speak to a woman about your life, your travels, your job, your interests, speak with passion. That passion about who you are will turn her on instantly. She will start to imagine what it will be like when you are involved with her and how passionate you will speak about her.
4. Be considerate. Pay attention to the little things and look for opportunities to make small gestures that show you care. A simple “How was your day?” and being able to listen to her when she wants to discuss something are huge. So many men forget about simple things like holding the door, paying for her valet or just thanking her for a great time last night. Women are all about a guy with manners — she is not attracted to the dope who acts like a caveman.
5. Be honest.
“Share who you are by telling her something personal”
Share who you are by telling her something personal. Maybe share one of your favorite childhood memories or some personal growth that you have been going through. Something that will show her that you are a trusting and honest person. It also shows that you are a confident but vulnerable man. Women love to see the vulnerable side of you. Note: Don’t talk about an ex in a bad way here. If you have to talk about an ex, do so in a positive manner and share what you learned and how you grew from the relationship.
6. Be flexibile. Be open to her plans but surprise her with your flexibility. Take charge and surprise her with a fun night out. Instead of being the typical guy who makes a reservation, think about how you can be the guy who listens to her and plans a great date that she did not expect. If you can pull this off, she will be open to all sorts of advances from you.
7. Be positive. If you are positive about life, it shows in your actions. I always tell men to be extra nice to waiters, bartenders and other service people. Be a courteous driver when she’s in the car. When you are in line at the movies, don’t complain. Look for the humor and try to have fun with people all around you. Be positive about everything, and she will find you to be very sexy and alluring. No one wants to be with a negative hothead.
8. Be balanced. Women love a successful, ambitious man. They love that you work hard, but if you constantly put work ahead of her she will become turned off. She will start to imagine what life with you will be like with her needs being ignored. If you are out meeting women to date, you need to balance your life between work and play. This will be a major turn-on for her.
9. Have ambition. Men who are ambitious about what they do are a turn-on to women. It doesn’t matter if you choose to be a rich stock trader or a painter, as long as you are passionate about who you are and what you do. If you don’t love what you do, find something that really turns you on. You can’t attract the woman you want with a negative ambition. Women love a man who is the best at what he does.
10. Be attentive. You are out with her for the very first time, and she tells you she loves a certain type of music. On the next date take her to a lounge that plays that type of music. It is all about paying attention to the details and working on your listening skills.

This list of 10 things will work in most cases. Keep in mind there is always the woman who you just can’t seem to please. If you happen to cross paths with this type of woman, ask yourself, “Why would I want to be with a woman who is so difficult?”
I tend to avoid the difficult, judgmental women. Knowing women’s turn-ons and putting them into practice will help you identify women who may be relationship material. You need to realize that you want to attract and turn on the women that are attracted to you on an equal level!

via [AttractandApproach.com]

Greedy girls pay attention: If you want a longer, deeper, more intense orgasm, you’ve (ahem) come to the right place. Considering the average female orgasm lasts between 15 and 30 seconds, it’s not surprising that many women feel a little, well, cheated when it comes to coming.

Now imagine an orgasm that lasts a full 30 minutes, with the odd random contraction happening up to a day afterward. This was the astonishing promise of two U.S. sexologists who pioneered what’s called the Extended Sexual Orgasm technique in the 80s. It was a pretty big claim — and it got a pretty big response at the time. But just like the G-spot, when people couldn’t figure out the whole orgasmic program in five minutes flat, it quickly and quietly disappeared into the “too complicated” basket… until now.

Sex therapists have recently resurrected Extended Sexual Orgasm (ESO) — and are seeing some spectacular results. What’s changed? The fact is, we’re far more sex-savvy now than ever before. So let’s get started.
Step One: On Your Own

* Think positively about sex. Most of us, according to the sexologists, resist pleasure rather than welcome pleasure– so you need to do some ‘cognitive restructuring’. In simple terms, this means thinking, “This is great — let’s go with it,” rather than “Oh God, my Mother would freak if she saw me now.”
* Do Kegel pelvic floor exercises. For the uninitiated — and where have you been? — these involve squeezing, holding, then releasing the same muscle you use to stop the flow of urine. The idea is to strengthen your pubococcygeus muscles, and standard sets involve clenching and releasing 25 to 30 times, three times a day.
* Pay attention when you masturbate. If you already know which strokes, speed, pressure and rhythms suit you, well done! Practice makes perfect for the rest of you.

Stage Two: With Your Partner

* You lie down while he sits or kneels cross-legged beside or in between your legs and applies some personal lubricant to the whole of your vagina and perineum (the part of your body between your vagina and anus). Next he should lightly brush and stroke your genitals but he’s not allowed to stimulate the clitoris and inside the vagina. He does this for at least five minutes.
* The stimulation now moves to the clitoris. He should slowly and steadily circle the clitoris with a finger, travelling around it once per second. At the same time, you tell him exactly what pressure and rhythm feels good.
* As he continues to stimulate your clitoris, you start doing your pelvic floor squeezes as you breathe deeply from your stomach. Prepare for your orgasm, because now it gets a bit complicated bit for him.
* As you feel you’re about to climax, he should watch and feel for regular two-second contractions in your genital area; this means you’re about to orgasm. Once these contractions start, he needs to stop stimulating the clitoris and immediately move to stroking the inner vaginal walls. Using his fingers, he can either push them in and out, or sweep them in circles in and out of the entrance. If he concentrates on the front vaginal wall (the bit underneath your tummy), stroking with his fore and middle finger is another option. Most crucial of all, whichever technique he chooses, the rhythm should be slow and steady.
* After you’ve had your orgasm, he’ll feel the vagina start to pull away - the point when most couples stop. But not this time! In ESO, your first orgasm is only the beginning, remember? Instead, he continues using his fingers inside the vagina, using a light touch initially, then upping the frequency and pressure once you feel ready for more. This should set off another series of contractions.
* The minute he feels a pause in the pulsating, he should move quickly back to stroking the clitoris as before. If he continues to steadily circle the clitoris, this should trigger even more contractions - at which point he moves back to stimulating inside the vagina again. He then continues switching back and forth from vaginal to clitoral stimulation until your contractions occur every one to five seconds.
* After doing this for 15 minutes, the contractions start to become continuous. When the vagina pushes out in a continual wave-like motion, you’re in the final phase. He now gets into a position where he can use both hands — and keep his balance — to stimulate the clitoris and the vagina simultaneously. The result: wave after wave of orgasms. …And to think you were going to give up!

Other Ways to Keep It Coming

* Find your “hot days.” It’s worth noting which days of the month you feel most aroused. Keep a chart. If Day One is the first day of your period, simply mark the days you feel sexy after that with a cross (record those days you can’t help but notice). After a few months, you may see a pattern emerging — or not; some of us don’t have one. If you do, it makes sense to try for extended orgasms during those periods.
* Drink less. Alcohol numbs and represses your bodily functions, lowering your chances of achieving extended sexual orgasms.
* Use lubricant. It allows you to be stimulated for longer without experiencing soreness.
* Move those hips. The more you move your pelvis, the longer and more intense the sexual charge. (Try belly dancing for ultimate flexibility!)
* Focus on the sensation. Men seem better at staying focused on orgasm, while women tend to “wander off” mentally. Search with your mind for the last, tiniest contraction to fully appreciate the experience.
* Switch stimulation. If you’ve just had a clitoral orgasm, switch to penetration or vaginal stimulation to continue the sensations or try for number two. If you’ve just climaxed through intercourse, switch to him giving you oral sex. Often, the first orgasm is sharper and quicker, the second could be longer.

via [iVillage]

Two weeks ago my aunt came to Chicago for a medical convention. She’s a nurse for the County of St. Louis specializing in HIV & STD treatment and prevention. We had dinner and as usual she had a few stories to tell. Blew my mind.

She told me the story of a 6-month-old baby who came in suffering from a major ear infection that they could not cure. Finally she asked the parents had they been tested for HIV or AIDS. The mother said no. And the father said yes, “About 20 years ago. But I was fine.” Longer story shorter he was not fine. He has been on file as HIV positive since 1986. He’s been positive for all these years and never told his girlfriends or even his wife. Twenty years.

How could someone be so cruel and careless? My aunt and I talked for a while and it finally hit me. This man at some point decided that his status would change if he chose to ignore the facts. He’s been lying to himself for all these years. Of course he has lied to countless others since, but it started with him convincing himself.

On my way home after dinner this particular story kept running through my mind. It took a while for everything to register but once it clicked it made sense to me that a great majority of us are like this. Not saying that you or I would lie about having a potentially deadly and contagious disease. But we all convince ourselves sometimes that things are different than what they really are.

The young lady at the club wearing an outfit two sizes too small… Before she left the house she had to convince herself that she looked cute. Or the punk, who’s not tough but thinks he’s a thug… He’s got to lie to himself to keep that façade convincing to those who don’t know any better.

I started thinking a lot about my own situations. One of my ex-girlfriends was cheating on me. I was in denial about it for a long time. But I caught her on the phone with another guy. Of course she lied and told me she wasn’t. Then another time I caught her male “friend” creeping over to her apartment at 11 something at night, after she was too tired to have me stay. We still talk to this day. And if I bring up either of these two situations, or any of the others, she has completely put them out of her mind. She knows that I know the truth. But she can’t accept the fact that she did something wrong in our relationship. It’s like instantly she cleansed herself of the matter by ignoring it. It never happened, in her mind.

And I’m sure that there are things deep inside my mind that I have buried. It’s easier to be something that you are not. It’s easier to be delusional. But “karma” is a mutha’. And at some point we all have to deal with the truth behind the lies that we so often live…..

Thousands of couples walked down the aisle on Saturday, 7-7-07, hoping all those 7s — the number long associated with luck — will keep them lucky in love. It’s one of the most popular wedding dates in modern history, according to overwhelmed wedding planners, florists, and photographers.

Relationship experts caution, however, that much more than luck is needed to stay together and beat the odds of a divorce, now estimated to end half of today’s marriages. Here, relationship experts consulted by WebMD offer their best marriage tips for how to stay lucky in love. And they go way beyond the usual tips to buy her flowers, cook his favorite meal, and remember to schedule date night.

Marriage Tip No. 1: Purge the “D’” word.

With the taste of wedding cake barely off their lips, divorce is the last thought — or word — on newlyweds’ minds. But as the honeymoon period wanes, and day-to-day difficulties crop up, the word can come up frequently during arguments for some couples, say relationship counselors.

“Just don’t go there,” suggests Steve Brody, Ph.D., a psychologist in Cambria, Calif., who counsels couples. “Some people pull that out much too early, and much too often in a relationship. It raises a whole level of anxiety [in the person hearing it].”

Divorce is also considered a dirty word by the more than 200 “marriage masters” interviewed for the book, “Project Everlasting.” Co-authors Mat Boggs and Jason Miller, bachelors and childhood buddies from Portland, Ore., traveled the country to interview the couples, married 40 or more years, and ask for their best marriage tips.

“Don’t use the D word” was one oft-repeated suggestion for keeping a happy marriage, Boggs says. These marriage masters told him, “You need all your energy to find the solution to a problem and work it out. If you are even giving any consideration to a divorce, you lessen your ability to solve the problem.”

Of course, Boggs says, the marriage masters acknowledged that some situations are deal breakers, such as addiction, adultery, or abuse. But when the problem is less severe, many of the marriage masters told him they create a “ledger of life.” They get out a piece of paper and write down everything they love about their spouse. Eventually, they shift gears and begin to focus on what is right, not what’s wrong.

Marriage Tip No. 2: Replace the seven deadly habits in a marriage with the seven caring habits.

Learning the seven bad habits and the seven good ones is the easy part, admit William Glasser, M.D., a Los Angeles psychiatrist, and his wife, Carleen

Glasser, M.A., who co-authored “Eight Lessons for a Happier Marriage,” include this idea in their book and counseling sessions. Putting them into practice takes effort, of course.

The seven deadly habits are criticizing, blaming, complaining, nagging, threatening, punishing, and bribing.

The seven caring habits include supporting, encouraging, listening, accepting, trusting, respecting, and negotiating your differences.

Marriage Tip No. 3: Take care of yourself.

This marriage tip is short and sweet: “Take care of yourself physically and spiritually,” Brody tells couples. That way, your stress will be down and your tolerance will be up. You’ll be less likely to get on each other’s nerves — and to squabble. You’re more likely to have a happy marriage.

Marriage Tip No. 4: Discuss outside friendships.

While some married couples consider activities such as workplace friendships with members of the opposite sex acceptable, some relationship experts disagree.

“I’m not big on cross-gender friendships for married people,” Brody says. “It’s playing with fire.” One exception, in his book: If a wife has a friendship with a gay man or a husband has a friendship with a gay woman, he’s fine with that, since the romance potential is nonexistent.

Otherwise, he says, the line is too easy and tempting to cross.

Marriage Tip No. 5: Stop trying to control your partner.

It’s another one of those easier-said-than done marriage tips, of course. But trying to control each other — using a technique psychologists call “external control” — is the main source of marital unhappiness, according to the Glassers. In a happy marriage, partners know they cannot control each other.

You have practiced this “external control” if you have ever told your partner they need to behave the way you want them to or that you know what is right.

Learning not to control a partner can be a long process, but the Glassers offer some tips on educating yourself. “Think first,” Carleen Glasser says. Ask yourself: “If I can only control my own behavior, what can I do to help the marriage?” Then think of what you can change to make the problem better, she suggests.

Marriage Tip No. 6: Honor and respect your partner.

“Be honoring all the time,” says Thomas Merrill. That means no “my old lady” stories, he says. And it also means a wife shouldn’t be flirting with male co-workers or other men.

Respect was also a marriage tip that came up often from the marriage masters, Boggs says. “The No. 1 principle that almost everyone talked about is respect,” he says. “You can have respect without love, but you cannot have love without respect.”

Respect, say those with a happy marriage, means not undermining your partner in front of the children. “And don’t go outside the marriage when you are having a problem,” Boggs says they advised. “Discuss it with your partner.”

Respect also means not criticizing your mate in front of others, Miller and Boggs were often told by the marriage masters. To make this marriage tip easier to practice, consider the input of one marriage master on the topic, Boggs says. “One man told me, ‘Let’s say someone is walking by when you are criticizing your mate. That is the only opinion they have of you.’”

Marriage Tip No. 7: If you’re the wife, lower your expectations. If you’re the husband, step up to the plate.

When Steve Brody and his wife, Cathy Brody, MFT, a marriage and family counselor, toured the country to promote their book, “Renew Your Marriage at Midlife,” they asked audiences what they wanted from marriage.

“Women expected to be loved, cherished, listened to, cared for, and courted,” Steve Brody says. They had a long list of wants and expectations, he recalls. The men joked that their expectations were more basic: Their typical answers, Brody says: “Bring food and show up naked.”

While the men were half joking, the gaps in expectations are a good lesson. To close the gap, Brody says, women need to lower their expectations — to not expect 24/7 romance, for instance, especially if their mate has just worked an unbelievably long week.

Men need to do some of the things the woman wants, such as prioritize their relationship and listen more, he says. In a nutshell, Brody says, “Men need to do the same things at home that they do at work.” He tells the husbands he counsels to think of it this way: “Your wife is the million-dollar client. If she walks out the door, the business is closed.”

[via WebMD]