Dr. Romance: Resolve to Make Your Love Life Sparkle!

Dr. Romance wishes all of you a happy, healthy and loving 2012!

We all are inspired to make resolutions in the new year, to celebrate new beginnings. Rather than resolving to exercise or diet, try:

Dr. Romance's Top 5 Resolutions to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great

Resolve to:

1. Talk frequently and honestly to each other about your frustrations, about sex, about anger, about disappointment, about your appreciation of each other, about the meaning of life, about everything. No topic should be off limits. Learn to listen and communicate instead of fighting. Fighting is childish, and you want a grown-up relationship.

2. Strive to work together to solve anything that comes up. Be a team, and create a partnership. Don't get stuck on who's right or wrong; instead, focus on what will solve the problem. Strive to work together so both of you can have what you want. When you build a successful working partnership, each of you will feel supported and respected by the other. When each of you feels that the other has your best interests at heart, problems are solved not "my way" or "your way" but so both are happy with the solution. The mutuality of this type of partnership creates an environment of love where deep trust grows. When trust, respect, responsibility and love feel mutual, that's when we feel secure in being loved.

3. Keep your connection going through communication, sex, affection, understanding and concern for one another. Nothing ensures your relationship will remain faithful better than a good, warm connection with great sex.

4. Have a sense of humor, give the benefit of the doubt, and care about each other. Store up plenty of good times in your relationship reservoir to draw on in the hard times. Treat your partner like your best friend.

5. Create good will. Every kind or unkind word, every gesture of support or criticism, every honest or dishonest interaction between you, and every gesture of affection or coldness is stored in your memory. Store up good feelings, forgiveness, support, honesty, appreciation, caring and affection, and sexual and emotional intimacy to build up a backlog of good will, affection and warm memories. Store up coldness, criticism, ingratitude, dishonesty, demands and dissatisfaction, and you’ll have a reservoir of resentment and disdain. To face problems, separations, disagreements, illnesses and stress, you will draw on your relationship reservoir. Memories of good feelings and goodwill let you cheerfully give what's needed. Resentment and hurt feelings stifle generosity.

Wishing you a year full of Hope and Joy.