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Relationships

Below are the articles in the Relationship category. Each article title is followed by a short introduction of the content. You may click "Read excerpt" for a more comprehensive introduction or click the "Purchase" link to buy the article.

Accepting the “Gift” of Criticism
Most of us can accept compliments. Some of us can accept suggestions. But most of us draw the line at criticism. Yet, criticism can be one of the most constructive and profound tools to change ourselves and improve our relationships with others.
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Are You a Good Listener?
Good communication is a two-way street: speaking and listening. Becoming a good listener is a skill we learn, and like other skills, it takes practice to get better. This quiz will help determine where a person’s strengths are and where he or she can improve as a listener.
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Are You Playing the Blame Game?
When things go wrong, blame is an easy way of taking the spotlight off oneself and shining it on others. This quiz will help determine if one is playing that game. Click here for an excerpt from the quiz.
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Avoidant Behaviors
Avoidant behaviors such as always being late and not returning phone calls are examples of the subtle and not-so-subtle means people adopt to side-step issues and situations. But those behaviors really serve a deeper purpose.
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Caretaking? or Taking Care?
As this quiz reveals, “taking care” and “caretaking” are vastly different in practice.
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Dealing with Difficult Coworkers
There’s one in every workplace—a coworker who annoys, takes credit, steals ideas, backstabs—but that doesn’t mean the other workers have to be victims.
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Designing the Alliance—Empower All of Your Relationships
To create a mutually successful experience in any relationship, apply the coaching concept designed alliance.
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Do You Have the People-Pleasing Syndrome?
When does being nice become toxic to oneself? Take this quiz to find out.
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Facing the Green-Eyed Monster: Learning from Envy
Many people would rather deny than face their envy of others, but like all shadow creatures, the monster ultimately reveals what is missing from one’s own life.
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Give Your Relationship a Tune-Up
Buy a car and you get a wonderful machine, ready to go for thousands of miles. But find a partner and you’re on your own. There’s no owner’s manual, warranty or guarantee. But there is hope.
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Helping Children Through the Hazards of Divorce
Research shows that children of divorce can suffer serious emotional consequences, some of them long-term. But parents can help mitigate the potential trauma. Here are ways to begin.
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How Controlling Are You?
We all know them…the folks who MUST CONTROL EVERYTHING. This quiz will help identify if that controlling person is you.
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How Well Are You Listening to Your Children (or Others)?
Advice, lecturing, even praise don’t take the place of real listening. Here, through a quiz format, are thirteen ways to begin.
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How Well Constructed Are Your Boundaries?
The poet said, “Good fences make good neighbors.” He was right. Good boundaries make life easier, reduce conflict and improve relationships. This quiz will help a person determine where his or her boundaries are healthy and where they might need shoring up.
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How Well Do You Handle Anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal emotion that most people experience. It becomes a problem when it interferes with a person's daily functioning. This quiz will help determine if anxiety is having that kind of impact.
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How (Well) Do You Handle Conflict?
A person’s approach to conflict resolution can make life easier or tougher. This questionnaire reveals how one responds in conflict situations.
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How Well Do You Handle Workplace Conflict?
Like taxes, conflict in the workplace is inevitable. That isn’t all bad. Handling conflict well leads to many benefits.
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How Well Do You Part Ways?
Breaking up is hard to do. But it doesn’t have to be devastating.
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How Well Do You Practice Empathy?
Empathy—that quality of recognizing and understanding another person’s desires, beliefs and emotions—is one of the most important skills we can ever acquire. It fosters meaningful relationships, encourages honest communication and can help avert violence.
Read excerpt [525 words; $45] Purchase article

Internet Addition
Every day, millions of people come home from work or school, boot up their computers and enter a world we wouldn’t have dreamed of twenty years ago. It’s a world that brings up new issues as well as old ones in new garb.
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The Journey from Loss to Healing
There is one hard and fast rule when it comes to coping with the death of someone you love: there are no rules. But there are guidelines that can help a person cope.
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Judgments—Criticism or Mirror?
“And why do you look at the speck in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?” That Biblical question is just as relevant today.
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Learning to Pay Attention to “Red Flags”
Too often we ignore the early warning signs that something is wrong, and by the time we sit up and take notice, the problems have multiplied.
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Learning to Trust After Betrayal
How can a person learn to trust again after a betrayal? This roadmap can help.
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Letting Go: Great Idea. How Do I Do It?
A woman’s husband had an affair 15 years ago and even though they’ve been divorced for seven, her stomach still knots up when she thinks about it. She knows she should let it go, but she just can’t. How might she begin?
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Marketing for Business—and for Life
Apply marketing principles to get what one wants out of relationships and life.
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“Normal” Is a Very Big Playing Field
Susan talks to her grandmother’s ghost. Jamie has 60 potted plants around her house—all in purple pots. Are they normal?
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Oh, the Tales We Tell: Getting Beyond Our Stories at Work
Outlines a path of investigation into the horror stories people tell themselves. It shows how to get beneath those stories to the beliefs and assumptions that really live there, and then offers a strategy for using that self-awareness to free oneself.
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One-Liners to Avoid in an Argument
They slice and dice, cutting wounds not easily healed by pacifying words. They inflame like a lit match near gasoline. They suck the life out of all that they touch. What are they?
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Playing Around: The Role of Games in Creating World-Class Workplace Teams
Great teams don’t happen overnight, and working in teams is not always easy. That’s why businesses are turning to team building games to foster cohesion and understanding.
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Practice Gratitude and Create Well-Being
Long considered a virtue, gratitude is now also a tool for a happier life.
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The Rewards of Really Listening
Joanna and Cyndi are sitting at a coffee shop. Joanna has just gone through a divorce and is telling her friend all about it. But is Cyndi really listening?
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Rewriting the Myth of Perfect Togetherness
Two people fall in love, and then forever more go everywhere and do everything together. That’s the ideal, isn’t it?
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Resentments and What to Do with Them
Some people spend hours dwelling on the wrongs done to them, the injustices, the slights, the snubs, insults, indifferences, slurs, and just plain bad treatment. But holding onto resentment eats away at self-esteem and peace of mind. What can a person do to free him- or herself?
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R-E-S-P-E-C-T: Find Out What It Means to You
Respect isn’t getting much respect these days. A person may demand respect from his or her family, social circle, and co-workers, then “dis” others with abandon. Why does that matter?
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Stopping Verbal Abuse in Its Tracks
Sarah’s husband yells at her for muting a commercial then greets her apology with more yelling and bizarre accusations. What’s going on there?
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Taking Feedback (to Heart)
When given difficult feedback, many people respond in unproductive ways. But it is possible to take the dread out of feedback and receive it as a gift.
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Taking the “War” Out of Our Words with Nondefensive Communication
A person sits down to dinner with friends, when one looks over and asks, “Do you always butter your bread that way?” The person laughs, but inside he’s seething.
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“To Do or Not to Do”: That Is the Commitment Question
Marie longed for a permanent relationship, but kept gravitating toward men with “a commitment problem.” They were married, from another state, getting over an old girlfriend…. But perhaps the problem was actually Marie’s.
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“Tolerations” Take a Toll
What do a boss who’s always yelling at you, your mate’s over-spending habits, a cluttered house or office, tight shoulders and a ho-hum (or bad) relationship have in common? They’re all tolerations, those little or big things we put up with—often without realizing it—that sap our energy and drain our life force.
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Top 10 Actions That Say “I Love You”
It takes more than words to communicate to a beloved that he or she is loved. Here are ten ways people can show they care.
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Top 10 Barriers to Connection
Avoiding these ten behaviors can greatly improve relationships.
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Top 10 Fears That Ruin Relationships
Fear is often present in relationships, but it doesn’t have to sabotage the relationship. This article helps one recognize fears and be more able to work with them.
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Top 10 Ways to Deepen Intimacy
True intimacy with another is not a given nor is it an impossible dream. Here are ten ways to create it.
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Top Ten Ways to Handle Tense Family Gatherings
Family gatherings may not always be fun, but they don’t have to be disasters.
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10 Ways to Love Fearlessly
Approach love with the courage of a warrior and watch your relationships soar.
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The Value of Conflict
Most people would rather go to the dentist for a root canal than confront a colleague with something that bothers them. But conflict doesn’t have to be a negative experience.
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