This book will inspire you to fall more deeply in love with your partner, yourself, and your relationship! Internationally renowned relationship coach Eri Kardos presents what people around the world have been waiting for: a simple and effective guide to using RELATIONSHIP AGREEMENTS - a beautiful tool that unpacks the spoken and unspoken understandings that hold a relationship together so that each aspect can be articulated, understood, and explored. With her unique ability to create a space that is warm, inviting, and fun, Eri effortlessly breaks down this highly effective tool into simple and sensible sections while sharing advice, activities, self-reflections, and exercises that provide partners with step-by-step methods to successfully navigate potentially challenging topics while building more intimacy and connection through the process. With years of experience and expertise in this area, Eri boldly takes readers beyond the traditional constructs of what relationships have been and brilliantly paints a new perspective of what relationships can become: a living and breathing experience that grows as you grow! Eri Kardos is one of the most highly referred relationship coaches in the Pacific Northwest and worldwide. Eri works globally with her clients: from the U.S. to Japan, from Argentina to India, from South Africa to Germany - Eri has delivered hundreds of self-development presentations, workshops, unconferences, and private coaching sessions. She regularly partners with corporations, universities, business groups, and community organizations to bring light to how communication and connection is inherently tied to success. She is passionate about applying her years of experience and understanding to help people in all stages of their relationship - whether intimately dating, newly married, at the brink of divorce, or partnered for over 40 years. Eri inspires people to fall in love more deeply with their partners, themselves, and their relationship!

Relationship Agreement: Avoid Breakup. Relationship Agreement sets forth acceptable and unacceptable conduct for people in romantic relationships. Sometimes spelling out agreements can avoid breakups. Couples can choose from the series of agreements by initialing each chosen page. Below each agreement is a space to handwrite proposed consequences in the event of a violation. The booklet includes an appendix with proposed consequences, and encourages couples to come up with their own ideas of what happens in the event of a breach. The appendix also sets forth dispute resolution forms. The author has established a web court (relationshipagreement.com) available to willing couples that wish to submit a dispute (at no charge) to the judgment of the Relationship Agreement Court. (The names can be changed to protect the guilty). This is not a book about community property, spousal support or other matters commonly set out in pre nuptial agreements. This is a book about how two people in a relationship will conduct themselves toward each other, with the overall goal of avoiding breakup and maintaining the relationship.

Dr. Tammy Nelson is a relationship revolutionary. Her rethinking of monogamy—as a practice, a continuum, and a flexible concept—is on point, actionable, and nothing less than a significant cultural shift. —Wednesday Martin, PhD, New York Times bestselling author of Primates of Park Avenue and Untrue Love is eternal—but in an age when we live longer, communicate differently, and value gender equality, is it any wonder so many people are looking for new ways to support lasting, loving partnerships? “Monogamy is no longer a simple concept,” says Dr. Tammy Nelson. “More couples every year are experimenting with open relationships and newer, more flexible versions of commitment ... yet few of us have been prepared with the skills we need to make those agreements work.” Open Monogamy is a practical guide for people who wish to explore new directions in their relationships—to bring in excitement, variety, and fresh experiences without sacrificing trust, security, and respect. Through solo and partner exercises and real-life stories from people across the spectrum of relationship styles, you’ll explore: • The changing face of relationships—why the time to explore new visions of love has arrived • Can open monogamy work for you? Self-assessment tools to find your place on the “monogamy continuum” • Essential skills for having honest conversations about attraction and desire • Exercises to remove shame and suspicion about open relationships • How to create agreements—traditional or otherwise—that are fulfilling, exhilarating, and built to last Dr. Nelson’s 30 years of experience as a relationship and sex therapist have shown her that relationships can flourish even when the old idea of monogamy fails. “You want to love each other with fairness and integrity because that’s what you signed up for, and honesty aligns with your shared values ... But you also want more. You want answers. The bad news? There is no one right way to do this. The good news? You can have anything you want.” If you’ve ever wondered how to try an open relationship or polyamory, Open Monogamy gives you the tools you need to create a commitment agreement as unique as your love.

If half of all cars bought in America each year broke down, there would be a national uproar. But when people suggest that maybe every single marriage doesn't look like the next and isn't meant to last until death, there's nothing but a rash of proposed laws trying to force it to do just that. In The New I Do, therapist Susan Pease Gadoua and journalist Vicki Larson take a groundbreaking look at the modern shape of marriage to help readers open their minds to marrying more consciously and creatively. Offering actual models of less-traditional marriages, including everything from a parenting marriage (intended for the sake of raising and nurturing children) to a comfort or safety marriage (where people marry for financial security or companionship), the book covers unique options for couples interested in forging their own paths. With advice to help listeners decide what works for them, The New I Doacts as a guide to thinking outside the marital box and the framework for a new debate on marriage in the 21st century.

Silent Agreements will help readers define the unspoken beliefs and expectations that might be causing dissatisfaction, unhappiness, and resentment in their relationships, giving them the tools to explore these agreements and work toward healthier communication with a partner, friend, boss, or family member. If you have relationships, you've likely been part of silent agreements. Silent agreements are the implicit "rules" of your relationships that arise from unspoken beliefs and expectations that both parties hold, stemming from your earliest experiences and reinforced as you mature. They can sound something like "The person who makes more money should pay for the dates," or "My boss doesn't offer me a raise, and he knows I won't ask for one." These agreements can hinder your relationships, remaining undiscussed due to fear, aversion to conflict, feelings of obligation, or guilt. Because expectations so rarely line up and neither person will address the issue, a silent agreement can cause unhappiness and resentment on both sides. Clinical psychologists Drs. Anderson, Banks, and Owens will help you explore your agreements and work towards healthier communication with a partner, friend, boss, or family member. In the process, you'll learn more about your own motivations and how to dismantle the the beliefs that don't serve you. With guidelines and advice on how to have productive conversations about sex, money, commitment, family, the workplace, and health, this book will help you lift the silence and resolve those land-mine issues before they do irreparable damage.

In The Circle of Fire (formerly published as Prayers: A Communion With Our Creator) Ruiz inspires us to enter into a new and loving relationship with ourselves, with our fellow humans, and with all of creation. Through a selection of beautiful essays, prayers, and guided meditations, Ruiz prepares our minds for a new way of seeing life, and opens our hearts to find our way back to our birthright: heaven on earth. The result is a life lived in joy, harmony, and contentment. In my teachings, "The Circle of Fire" ceremony celebrates the most important day of our lives: the day when we merge with the fire of our spirit, and return to our own divinity. This is the day when we recover the awareness of what we really are, and make the choice to live in communion with that force of creation we call "Life" or "God." From that day forward, we live with unconditional love in our hearts for ourselves, for life, for everything in creation. This book, first published in 2001 as "Prayers: A Communion with Our Creator," will remind you of what you really are. It has always been my favorite book, and now in honor of my favorite prayer, it has been appropriately renamed "The Circle of Fire." -- don Miguel Ruiz

“A beautifully written and well-researched cultural criticism as well as an honest memoir” (Los Angeles Review of Books) from the author of the popular New York Times essay, “To Fall in Love with Anyone, Do This,” explores the romantic myths we create and explains how they limit our ability to achieve and sustain intimacy. What really makes love last? Does love ever work the way we say it does in movies and books and Facebook posts? Or does obsessing over those love stories hurt our real-life relationships? When her parents divorced after a twenty-eight year marriage and her own ten-year relationship ended, those were the questions that Mandy Len Catron wanted to answer. In a series of candid, vulnerable, and wise essays that takes a closer look at what it means to love someone, be loved, and how we present our love to the world, “Catron melds science and emotion beautifully into a thoughtful and thought-provoking meditation” (Bookpage). She delves back to 1944, when her grandparents met in a coal mining town in Appalachia, to her own dating life as a professor in Vancouver. She uses biologists’ research into dopamine triggers to ask whether the need to love is an innate human drive. She uses literary theory to show why we prefer certain kinds of love stories. She urges us to question the unwritten scripts we follow in relationships and looks into where those scripts come from. And she tells the story of how she decided to test an experiment that she’d read about—where the goal was to create intimacy between strangers using a list of thirty-six questions—and ended up in the surreal situation of having millions of people following her brand-new relationship. “Perfect fodder for the romantic and the cynic in all of us” (Booklist), How to Fall in Love with Anyone flips the script on love. “Clear-eyed and full of heart, it is mandatory reading for anyone coping with—or curious about—the challenges of contemporary courtship” (The Toronto Star).

Whether you’re newly together and eager to make it work or a longtime couple looking to strengthen and deepen your bond, Eight Dates offers a program of how, why, and when to have eight basic conversations with your partner that can result in a lifetime of love. “Happily ever after” is not by chance, it’s by choice– the choice each person in a relationship makes to remain open, remain curious, and, most of all, to keep talking to one another. From award-winning marriage researcher and bestselling author Dr. John Gottman and fellow researcher Julie Gottman, Eight Dates offers an ingenious and simple-to-implement approach to effective relationship communication. Here are the subjects that every serious couple should discuss: Trust. Family. Sex and intimacy. Dealing with conflict. Work and money. Dreams, and more. And here is how to talk about them—how to broach subjects that are difficult or embarrassing, how to be brave enough to say what you really feel. There are also suggestions for where and when to go on each date—book your favorite romantic restaurant for the Sex & Intimacy conversation (and maybe go to a yoga or dance class beforehand). There are questionnaires, innovative exercises, real-life case studies, and skills to master, including the Four Skills of Intimate Conversation and the Art of Listening. Because making love last is not about having a certain feeling—it’s about both of you being active and involved.

“After years of debate and inquiry, the key to a great marriage remained shrouded in mystery. Until now...”—Carol Dweck, author of Mindset: The New Psychology of Success Eli J. Finkel's insightful and ground-breaking investigation of marriage clearly shows that the best marriages today are better than the best marriages of earlier eras. Indeed, they are the best marriages the world has ever known. He presents his findings here for the first time in this lucid, inspiring guide to modern marital bliss. The All-or-Nothing Marriage reverse engineers fulfilling marriages—from the “traditional” to the utterly nontraditional—and shows how any marriage can be better. The primary function of marriage from 1620 to 1850 was food, shelter, and protection from violence; from 1850 to 1965, the purpose revolved around love and companionship. But today, a new kind of marriage has emerged, one oriented toward self-discover, self-esteem, and personal growth. Finkel combines cutting-edge scientific research with practical advice; he considers paths to better communication and responsiveness; he offers guidance on when to recalibrate our expectations; and he even introduces a set of must-try “lovehacks.” This is a book for the newlywed to the empty nester, for those thinking about getting married or remarried, and for anyone looking for illuminating advice that will make a real difference to getting the most out of marriage today.

The Model Rules of Professional Conduct provides an up-to-date resource for information on legal ethics. Federal, state and local courts in all jurisdictions look to the Rules for guidance in solving lawyer malpractice cases, disciplinary actions, disqualification issues, sanctions questions and much more. In this volume, black-letter Rules of Professional Conduct are followed by numbered Comments that explain each Rule's purpose and provide suggestions for its practical application. The Rules will help you identify proper conduct in a variety of given situations, review those instances where discretionary action is possible, and define the nature of the relationship between you and your clients, colleagues and the courts.