9 Ways to De-Stress Your Marriage

Live in the Past
You usually try to avoid dwelling in the past, but Terri Orbuch, Ph.D., a Michigan–based marriage and family therapist and the author of 5 Simple Steps to Take Your Marriage from Good to Great (Bantam/Dell, 2009), recommends re-living a good memory you’ve shared together. Eat dinner at the restaurant where you had your first date, listen to an iPod playlist of songs that played at your wedding, or go through your wedding album together. “Things like that trigger a positive memory, which is really important to de-stressing,” says Orbuch, “and it takes your mind off the stress-producing situation.” The more senses you can involve—sight, sound, touch, taste—the better.

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You’ve only been trying for a few months, but you’re already starting to get annoyed rather than excited when you see a pregnant woman. Or you’ve been trying a lot longer. . . and you can’t even bear to look. Here’s how to get over it until it’s your turn.
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Eileen Garvin of Susanville, California, became a client of a fertility clinic the way most women do—she was referred there by her ob/gyn.
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Everyone knows about maternity leave, but sometimes women need to take time off before a baby arrives. If you’re having fertility treatments or trying to adopt, here’s what you should know to get the time off you need. Whether—and when—to tell your boss that you’re undergoing fertility treatments or arranging an adoption depends a lot on your relationship with your supervisor. While most workplace experts caution against revealing too much personal information, how do you explain being late for work because of blood tests and ultrasounds, and then needing to get home for hormone injections? Or what if you must travel abroad to bring home a baby, and then want three months to bond with your adopted child?
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