Having an unhealthy body due to lack of exercise and poor eating habits can affect your life in many ways. Can it also affect your love life?

Sometimes when you are with someone for several years, you may feel the two of you growing apart. You begin spending less time with each other, and the magic seems to falter. You sense your relationship is suffering a bit and you believe both of you aren't on the same wavelength any longer.

Seeking advice for problems with our relationships can be fraught with difficulties. If you have a leaky roof you get it fixed straight away, but did you know that on average it takes us 6 years to fix a relationship or sexual problem? By that time things are so bad the lawyers have to be called in. Treat your counselor as your best buddy. So if you and your wife are arguing all the time get help before you stop talking altogether.

Just recently there was a magazine article which asked whether the therapists themselves practiced what they preached and guess what? They all sought help well BEFORE they got into difficulties. All of them talked to their therapist even for half an hour on the telephone to get things straight in their minds and to give them a different way of dealing with things.

Have you ever been to a function in a room full of strangers and found yourself lost for words? It can be a very lonely experience, especially if you intend to date.

The art of introducing yourself to others and creating small talk may come naturally for some, but most people confess to feeling shy, embarrassed and don’t know where to start. Your inner ambitions are crying out for you to relate to others – just as other people are deeply interested to know you.

The key to knowing where to start is to understand the four levels of communication.

1. Small Talk

When you meet someone for the first time, the safest place to start is to talk about surface issues. For instance, make a comment about the weather, current events or the surroundings you are in.

One of the key components of a relationship is the support that two people provide for each other, yet it is typically one of the most overlooked aspects of choosing the perfect mate. A relationship that is built upon mutual support will overcome just about any obstacles that two individuals encounter along the way.

Support can take on many forms, but in the broadest sense, it is the willingness of two people in a relationship to lift and encourage each other to be the best that they can be. It is also the willingness for each of the individuals to be there for each other through both good and bad times.

Every day we see couples around us who are married and often we are left wondering... why? What holds those two together? Why do they seem unhappy but stay together? Are they really as outgoing and pleasant as they seem in public? Don't they ever have a disagreement or a shouting match? Are they for real in their affection for each other or is it all just for show?

Many times if you are in a marriage and wondering about a possible divorce, you seem to not be able to see others around you in a realistic light. Of course, couples fight and have disagreements, but the ones that stay together have learned how to fight and how to make their points and nurture their relationship. If you want to avoid a divorce and have a good marriage, there are some points to follow that may have been forgotten over time with the disagreements with kids, meals, job conflicts, sports schedules, discipline, etc.

Life seems to get busier and busier as time goes by and before we know it another month, season or even year has gone by and you realize that you haven't had a vacation or spent any quality time with your partner in a long, long time.

While we can't control many things in life such as work or family commitments it is important to understand that everything in life requires nurturing otherwise it will slowly decline and a marriage is no different.

Spending some quality time together over a weekend at home is a good thing but as there are usually regular distractions such as the phone calls, friends dropping by or neighborhood noise, it is important to get away to a couple's retreat where you don't have these distractions.

Fighting fairly is one of the most important skills you can learn in order to keep your marriage healthy and strong. While it may first seem that fighting only happens in "bad" marriages, fighting actually happens in all marriages.

Researcher David Olson of the University of Minnesota estimates that 25% of marriages are happy. 50% of couples will never be happy without very good therapy. 30% of marriages are considered "empty", with little love or joy. 25% of marriages could be really happy if the couples learned better how to communicate and how to resolve conflict.

It is this latter 25% that should be focused on. Learning to fight fair can be the difference between a bad fight/bad marriage and a bad fight/good marriage. You can have a bad fight but still have an overall good marriage. In fact, couples who fight productively report more marital satisfaction once the fight has ended.

After two years of romancing your partner you sense it's time to “tie the knot”.

You see that marriage has its benefits, as well as its downfalls, and it seems easier to resolve the differences along the way, rather than to evaluate the pitfalls ahead of time.

Beyond the roses and wedding cake is the “forever” of marriage. After the wedding day has come and gone, you are left with the task of building a relationship with your partner.

How will you know if you and your partner are both ready for a lifelong commitment?

Here are some tips that will help you identify whether you and your partner are ready for marriage – or whether you should end the relationship and seek another.

Have you been married for a while now and things seem to be spiraling into a whirlwind of different schedules for all family members? Do you find little time for romance, routines daily that seem to be robotic like, schedules to keep, commitments to others that take time from the family dynamics? Do you feel you and your husband need to rekindle the bonds that brought you together in the first place?

The first thing to do is consider all the distractions of daily life. With children, time commitments can be significant and can be all encompassing. There are car pools, school meetings, sports, birthday parties, homework, shopping trips, and it seems never ending sometimes. These things all help a child to develop social skills and are very important; however, so is your time alone with your spouse and you must try to find a balance.