If You're Not Doing This, You're Likely Not One of the Happiest Couples

Eharmony Study Shows Happiest Couples Have One Habit in Common

I have yet to meet an individual who aspires to be unhappy in their relationship. And yet, many couples find themselves unhappy in the relationship. Old patterns and life experiences trains our brains to recreate what’s familiar and most times, that’s not always healthy. 

But there are habits that happy couples practice that have been proven to increase overall relationship satisfaction. Dating and relationship matching service eharmony surveyed their community in their Annual Happiness Index to find that couples who equally balanced quality time together and sex reported the the highest levels of happiness in their relationships.

In previous years, eharmony’s same report found that those who implemented Words of Affirmation and appreciation ranked highest for happiness in their relationships. 

Both Quality Time and Words of Affirmation are among Gary Chapmans “Five Love Languages” and are core to the Relationship Check-In (TM) Method by Happy Partners Project. 

As the year reaches completion, Happy Partners Project has found that over half of couples who took its Relationship Happiness quiz are happy in their relationships. It also found that 31% of respondents have a regular gratitude practice, while another 32% reported that they both express gratitude on a consistent basis but it’s not a “ritual” yet. 

Today, you can take inventory of your relationship: 

1. How would you rank the balance between Quality Time and Sex in your relationship on a scale of 0 to 5? (0=No Balance at All, We’re either extreme in one or the other and 5=We have great balance between quality time and sex)
2. How often am I expressing gratitude / appreciation to my partner? How often are they expressing gratitude / appreciation to me? On a scale of 0–5, how satisfied am I with the current rate of gratitude? (0=Not Satisfied at All, 5= Very Satisfied, Wouldn’t change a thing.) And lastly, if you ranked anything below a 5, what could you do from here forward that would move that number up one level?

I invite you to share your responses to either of these prompts in the comments and if here’s another great read on additional habits of Happy Couples.

8 Habits of Happy Couples

Jocelyn Johnson is the founder of Happy Partners Project and the creator of the Relationship Check-In (TM) Method, the acclaimed science and psych-backed process for strengthening relationships and empowering couples to create their best relationship. She coaches couples and individuals to integrate conscious relationships habits, heal relational wounds and accelerate change. She is certified in Cognitive Behavioral Coaching, Neuro-linguistic Programming and Rational Emotive Behavioral Therapy.

Find her at @itsjocelynj on Instagram and www.jocelynjohnson.coach.