Is your husband struggling in the troubled economy like so many others? Does it seem like he is adrift with no apparent opportunities or the needed motivation? If this is him, there are some things you could do aside from being mad at him.

Many times, a man feels like less of one when he loses his job. He was probably told all of his life how important having a job is to take care of his family’s daily needs. He can have a feeling of uselessness and could even become depressed.

Although, he lost the job through no fault of yours, he could still take his feelings out on you over it. By encouraging and supporting him, you can help him get back his motivation to search out employment whether it is at the same level or lower than he was working before losing the job.

Let your man that a job will come along as long as he does not become discouraged. Have patience with him if he gets depressed. He might even think you have quit respecting and admiring him. You need to tell him over and over again that you respect and love him, and it has nothing to do whether he is or isn’t employed.

If no job opportunities immediately are available, encourage him to think of his other choices. If he hated the type of job he had anyway, show him the other jobs he could do, even if he needs more training to do them.

At times losing a job a man hates can unearth an opportunity to do something he feels more passionate over, and it will not even matter if it pays as much as the other job. You would much rather have your husband happy with his job than one who hates to go to work and comes home grumpy wouldn’t you? I know which one I would pick!

With the way the economy is right now with no indication when it is going to get better, a lot of people have decided to go back to school for more education or to change job areas completely. You can find programs to help your husband pay for going back to college.

Offer to contact the local college or university to make an appointment for him, so he can discuss with a counselor what options are available for him. He may have just gone into his father’s profession instead of following his dream of being a landscaper.

This is an ideal time for going back to school to get the training to be a landscaper. This might lead to him starting a business of his own to where he does not have to depend on someone else for a job.

You should consider your husband the priority, and in place of nagging him to find employment, you should be encouraging him to follow his dreams, and work at something he truly loves.

The passion that you experienced with the man that you had been dreaming of was unique and amazing when you first met. You wanted to spend every minute with him. Every single moment you were awake you were with each other and you never went more than just one or two days apart. It felt like this relationship would stay this way forever. Now, you are in a position where you need to find a way to regain the attention of your husband.

There are some things that you can do but first you need to have a face to face conversation with him. Ask him if there is something bothering him. He may have some drama going on at work that has enveloped his mind to the point that he no longer sees you.

When the passion begins to die down in a relationship, there are several reasons that it could be going. When life gets hectic and children are added to the family, the time that you have to spend alone becomes less and less. This can cause two people to begin to drift apart and it can be difficult to find your way back to each other.

This is not the end though. It is possible to find the love and happiness that you once had in your relationship. You have to begin again. Get reacquainted. Start over and begin the relationship on a new page.

If you are not able to find that common ground again, you may consider visiting a marriage counselor. When you find a good counselor they can help you weed out the problems in your relationship that is causing the separation. Once you have worked for a while with the counselor, the next step is to try to help your husband with his attention span.

You are likely to hear that the counselor would like you to set a date night for you and your husband and to stick to the date as best you can. When you do not stick to the plan, you could find that reconnecting with each other becomes more difficult. Do your best to keep your work at work and your family life at home. Do not intermingle your personal life and other distractions that may keep you from being with each other.

You can do more to help by arranging a weekend once a month for you and your spouse to get away from your everyday life. You can spend some much needed time together by yourselves which will remove the stress and allow you to get back in touch.

When the children are grown then you may find that you are not sure what to do once they have moved out of the house. You need to fill your time so try something like enrolling in some courses at the community college. Let your husband go out and play poker with his buddies while you are in class.

Spend some time in the gym so that you are improving your mind and your body. When you exercise you will have higher self esteem and your husband is likely to see the improvements that you are making and be even more attracted to you.

When you incorporate things like this you are, at the minimum, gaining some common ground to talk about. You can bring your relationship back to the way that it was and experience once again what it feels like to have your husbands complete attention.

For more great tips on bringing the passion back to your relationship with your husband, check out this new video by my good friend Mike Fiore, where he teaches you the real reason men aren’t “romantic” . . .

And shows you how to use tiny little text messages sent from your average cell phone to  turn even the biggest “Romantic Numbskull” into a passionate “Prince Charming” — literally overnight.

Check out the video while you can, and let me know what you think!

P.S. Mike is a bit of a celebrity (he’s been on The Rachael Ray Show, interviewed by a bunch of newspapers and magazines and has a *weird* method for injecting romance into your relationship literally at the push of a button.

P.P.S. I never thought this would work . . . Then I watched the video and was blown away.

Go check out his video now.

Do you realize that the most creative and the most memorable marriage proposals are also the most unique proposals? However, many will find that they will become frustrated and stressed out due to one’s quest to blow the prospective bride away with the right marriage proposal.

But don’t worry! Here are three methods of getting your creative juices flowing, so that you can plan the marriage proposal that will knock her off of her feet:

1. Be Personal

You might be thinking that your girl would love a romantic diner. Really? Doesn’t everybody? Find something else special for her. Not only will this let her know that you care deeply about her desires, but this will show that you care about the details of her life.

Think about the special moments of your relationship that took place in those special locations. For example, if beaches played a part in your relationship, then perhaps you can arrange to place her in a location where she can read your marriage proposal in the sand. If she likes certain cartoon characters, then dress up like her favorite cartoon character when you plan on asking her to marry you.

Get creative and original. Brainstorm a list of special ideas. Then, use one for your marriage proposal.

2. Get The Friends And Family Involved

No matter how well you might think that you know her, there are always nuggets of information that her friends and family have about her that could be of help to you. These nuggets of information could help you to come up with a unique and a creative marriage proposal.

3. Wow Her!

Ask your female friends how they would feel if they were to receive the proposal that you have on your mind. If they hate it, then start all over again.

You have to get this right, if nothing else in your relationship. A marriage proposal is one of the most important questions that you will ever ask anyone in your life. Most women don’t feel as if their proposals were the most romantic. Therefore, you owe it to your future bride to present her with the most unique and romantic proposal possible. If you are going to go through the trouble of giving her a killer ring, shouldn’t you think of a killer proposal as well?

If you’d like to gain more ideas for a killer marriage proposal, then check out a book called “The Romantic’s Guide To Popping The Question“. This book contains 101 creative and marriage proposals, as well as award-winning stories of the most romantic wedding proposals. Click here for more information.

Someone who has decided that it is time to begin seeing a marriage counselor should be careful and make their decision with some care.

There are certain things that must be considered before you begin your sessions with the marriage counselor that you choose.

Our society has led us to the thought that we should automatically trust those that have gotten their degree and have gone through the advanced learning that is necessary in their field. Most of the time, I would probably agree with that.

When it comes to beginning sessions with a marriage counselor or some other person that is there to help you with a problem, you should take some extra time to consider things other than their degree. When someone has a degree they have proven that they could make it through the schooling, and that is all it tells you. They were probably a good student but will that be enough?

Someone with a degree may not be the most skilled person in their field, although sometimes it can be absolutely true.

Their degree will not make them compatible with you and your spouse. While this may sound menial, it is really very important. For many people, the idea of going to counseling is viewed as a collaborating session instead of actual therapy.

The old idea of visiting with a therapist to simply lay down on the couch and let all of your feelings out is simply not valid any longer in most cases. While the therapist may be taking notes, they approach a therapy session as give and take, where they share as well as you.

Yes, you may spend some time discussing your hopes, concerns and fears but they will be there to give you the tools that you need to cope as well as to help you understand the situation from a different prospective.

Here is an example of this theory. Many years ago, my wife and I decided that we needed to go to counseling. We had problems working through how quickly she would get upset when the kids did something wrong that I thought was very small and meaningless.

Each time she lashed out I had to immediately act as the peace keeper and work to calm everybody down. It would then turn into an even larger event.

The counselor did a lot more than just listen and write down notes. He gave us some tools that we could use to help the situation when it occurs.

When I felt like my wife was taking things too far then I had a code word that I could use. This allowed me to let my wife know how I was feeling without the kids knowing and it actually helped to stop some of the arguments from even starting.

We were able to use this tool to help us find more peace in the family. This was just what I needed to get from the therapist that helped us so much.

I wanted our visits at the therapist to be limited and not to continue for many years. I was looking for techniques that I could apply immediately that would help us deal with our problems.

You should consider this as you look for a counselor.

Decide if you would like to have someone to simply listen to your issues or if you would like to have someone that could offer you some useful tools that can help you fix the problems immediately.

After you have decided on the type of counseling that you are looking for then you can find the marriage counselor that will help you get what you need.

Anytime I hear of a marriage relationship that has fallen apart it saddens me. The marriage likely started out on really great terms and then something happened and the relationship seems to be coming to an end.

Some people really believe that a relationship will end eventually and that a marriage relationship is something that is not very lasting at all. I happen to think that is a false statement. I think that it is very possible for a marriage to be successful and thrive.

I am not referring to those people that stay married for a very long time and brag about how long they have been married and at the same time they cringe every time they see their spouse. I am referring to the strong, loving, respectful relationships that will manage through each and every pitfall they come across.

I am a true believer that relationships like that really do happen but I do not think that it is due to magic or accident. I believe that there are key ingredients in these types of relationships that must be there in order for it to work so well.

In an ideal relationship these key ingredients will be there instantly but if they are not there then both of the partners in the relationship will need to be mature and work through the changes that must be made in order to make the relationship a success.

Below are the ingredients that I believe will make a relationship last through the years:

The compatibility must be there.

This sounds like something that is assumed. If you consider it for a minute, do you know of any couples that seem to be complete opposites that are having problems in their marriage?

Most people know of at least a couple people that are polar opposites and that are not compatible at all. They view everything differently and they are constantly in an argument over things that are just really small. They are not compatible at all.

Some people simply get into a relationship for all of the wrong reasons. They may be sexually attracted to each other or they may simply be lonely and desperate. When they get together for these reasons they do not often stop to think about whether they will be good for each other in the long run.

You should marry someone that you have a great deal in common with. You will have more respect for them and will like them much more when they are able to respect you as well.

Be a grown up.

This again is very obvious but many people act like such kids when they are in a relationship. Think, again, about the people that you know that seem to struggle a lot with trying to communicate their wants and desires.

Whining, pouting, and ignoring people are how they act when they do not get their way and they are not able to communicate at all it seems.

Try to get rid of the baggage that you have been carrying around.

Many times people have a difficult time forgetting the hurt from the past and moving forward. It is almost as if the pain is something they treasure that they simply cannot let go of. They need to let it go.

When someone keeps that old pain and baggage around them they will keep making the same mistakes over and over again. No one should have to deal with that.

There is not one relationship that will work that way, especially marriage. You need two adults to make a marriage work.

Your marriage relationship needs to be healthy and strong so remember these things as you go through it. You can make some changes in your current marriage that will help and hopefully you will see some changes from your spouse as well.