Hello and welcome to the Empowered Couples podcast. We're here you get modern, non-boring relationship

advice for you and your partner to communicate like pros, fight smarter, and stay on the same team,

no matter the challenge that you face. I am one of your host, Erin Freeman. And I'm Jocelyn Freeman,

but you all just know us as the Freeman's. And this episode is about handling harder seasons of

marriage better with these three changes.

And when we say seasons, by the way, this can range from a week, like that feels like a really

hard season to maybe it's a series of a couple months. And then for some, it can extend longer.

But the point of this episode, as we go into the specific things that you

can change, is that those seasons that feel hard can be shorter and shorter because they're

going to happen. It's not about avoiding that times will ever feel hard. If you implement the

tools and skills that we teach in all of our

podcasts and programs, you certainly can prevent it from getting really, really hard. But like life,

there's going to be unexpected plot twist. There's going to be stressors that you didn't plan for.

You didn't put them on your New Year's resolutions or your

goals. And life just presents us with things that we didn't anticipate. Same thing in marriage.

So again, you can do as much to prevent them. But when there are hard moments, because there will be,

it's about how can we shorten those seasons, course correct,

and get back to connection and happier days faster, right?

Mm-hmm.

And that's one of the points we want you to take away,

even before we get into the three changes,

there can be these two categories that lead to harder seasons. As Jocelyn

...