A Happily Ever After with Mindfulness

Once upon a time there was a marriage that had existed for 30 years. You can imagine that after this long it can become dull and people might get unhappy. It is then difficult to pull your marriage out of a rut. But no need to worry, because mindfulness may be a solution!

Burpee & Langer studied the relationship between marital satisfaction and mindfulness. 55 women and 40 men who were married at that time filled out a 14-question questionnaire with questions about their life satisfaction, marital satisfaction, and to what extent the individual had similarities with their spouse that needed to be answered on an 11-point scale (0-10). They also completed a mindfulness scale. The scores of mindfulness and spouse similarity were compared with the score of marital satisfaction to figure out whether there was a relationship.

They found out that there was indeed a strong relationship between mindfulness and marital satisfaction, and that mindfulness was more important than spouse similarity. The reason why mindfulness is an important factor in marriage, is that it can make a person better understand their spouse and more easily put themselves in their shoes and take on the other person’s perspective. They are more mentally engaged, more open, and less threatened by change. Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

That being so, if you ever experience any problems in your marriage, I suggest you take on mindfulness, so you can have that happily ever after! 

Reference:
Burpee, C. & Langer. E., (2005). Mindfulness and Marital Satisfaction. Journal of Adult Development, 12(1), 43-51. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10804-005-1281-6