A good marriage isn’t something you find.

“A good marriage isn’t something you find. It’s something you make, and you have to keep on making it.” – Gary Thomas

To celebrate the second day of our 5th Annual Healthy Relationships Week, we’re highlighting partner relationships today by premiering two videos throughout the day featuring relationship experts as they share their insights into how young married couples can set the tone for a healthy marriage. Learn more about how to tune into these videos here.

But, we also wanted to highlight all marriages today with a little reminder and motivation to do something intentional to strengthen your relationship with your spouse today. Taking just a moment to express gratitude, show affection, or extend a compliment can set the tone for a healthy and happy Valentine’s Day week and beyond!

Happy First Day of Healthy Relationships Week!

Today marks the first day of our fifth annual Healthy Relationships Week!

For the fifth year in a row, we’re offering 7 days of consecutive resources to help you strengthen all of your relationships, focusing on one particular relationship each day of the week. Today, we challenge you to use one of our HRI toolkits to help strengthen a particular relationship in your life.

Each HRI Toolkit offers three sets of resources. First, Reflect resources provide self-reflection activities to examine your beliefs and views toward relationships. Second, Connect resources offer Conversation Starters to help guide discussions with others in your life to better understand one another. Third, the tools in the Build section offer tip sheets that address several common elements of different types of relationships.

Download a toolkit today! 

Learn more about Healthy Relationships Week by clicking here!

Defining Gratitude Can Help You Practice

No matter what’s going on in your life or in the world, one thing you can do to make it brighter is to practice gratitude every day. Having an understanding of what gratitude means to you can help you begin to practice it in your daily life.

The Oxford Languages describes gratitude as “the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.” How would you define gratitude? What does that look like in your life? 

Small Ways to Practice Gratitude Each Day

Gratitude has been consistently linked to better moods and improved health in positive psychology research. Today, we’re sharing some small ways that you can begin practicing gratitude every day: 

  1. Note positive moments throughout the day. Often, when we take stock of our day, we dwell on the negative moments and brush off the positive moments. Start to practice gratitude by placing greater focus on the positive moments, even if they’re small.
  2. Find reasons to smile and laugh. Find the happiness and humor in each day – create it if you have to! Give thanks for a blue sky, watch your favorite TV show, enjoy your favorite meal!
  3. Make time for your loved ones. Whether it’s your parents, children, significant other, friends, pets, or extended family members, carve out a little time each day to spend some time with people you love. 
  4. Make time for yourself. Show yourself some gratitude by being kind to your mind, body, and soul. Take time to decompress and take care of yourself every day.

 

2.11.20| HRI Partners with UNC Greensboro Campus Violence Response Center!

 

Attention UNC Greensboro students!

The Healthy Relationships Initiative is partnering with the UNC Greensboro Campus Violence Response Center (learn more here) to offer a short 30-minute live session on Healthy Relationships 101.  HRI Program Coordinator, Camila Dos Santos, will share insights into building healthy relationships at all ages, but especially as a college student living through a pandemic.

Join us on February 11 on our Instagram page live at 12:30!

Nominate a Kindness Champion!

We’re accepting Kindness Champion nominations!

Do you have someone in your life you think deserves to be recognized for their kindness? Someone who goes out of their way to lend a helping hand?

Nominate them for the Healthy Relationships Initiative’s Kindness Champions of Guilford County! In honor of the Random Acts of Kindness Foundation, the Healthy Relationships Initiative’s Kindness Champions of Guilford County aims to spotlight individuals who spread positivity to the people in their lives through kindness and compassion. 

If you think you know someone who fits this description, please take a moment to submit a nomination for them! This could be anyone you know in your life and your community: a friend, a family member, a co-worker, or even an acquaintance. Nominees of all ages are welcome!

All nominations are due by February 17, Random Acts of Kindness Day.

To nominate someone, please email Ella Porter at elporte2@uncg.edu and provide the nominee’s name, contact info (preferably email; for child nominees, please provide the contact information for their parent/guardian), and why you’re nominating them as a Kindness Champion!

Kindness Champions will receive a small prize and will be featured on the Healthy Relationships Initiative’s blog and social media accounts in early March.

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy

 “Let us be grateful to people who make us happy; they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.” -Marcel Proust

With all the craziness going on, it can be easy to forget or take for granted the importance of our loved ones in filling our lives with meaning. We get caught up in work or school or life, get used to having our loved ones around, and forget what a gift it is to have them with us. Today, take a moment to be grateful for the people in your life who make you happy, who support you, and who care for you.