A lot of my coaching clients are men trying to reconnect and rebuild trust with their wives.

Many of their stories involve them sharing an example of things they do in an effort to love, support, help, or otherwise provide value or service to their wife, only to feel rejected by her lukewarm reactions to his efforts.

He’s disappointed. Ashamed. Frustrated. Confused. Rejected. Sad. Losing hope.

With election season upon us in the United States, and a presidential election year looming for 2020, a reader emailed asking me about how to keep political fights from harming a marriage.

I think if we look closely enough, we'll see that the way to reduce conflict and stay connected to our partners in political conversations is more or less the same way we do it while discussing everything else.

TL;DR version: What if we valued the quality of our relationship with the person... to whom we're speaking more than we valued "winning" a conversation with them.