Relationships

The End of the Challenge—But the Beginning of a New Connection

December 7, 2024

As we wrap up the 30-Day Couples Gratitude Challenge, it’s time to reflect on the journey we’ve taken together and the powerful transformations that small, daily acts of gratitude can bring to a relationship. Over the past month, we’ve explored the themes of appreciation, shared memories, celebrating uniqueness, and envisioning a shared future. Each week […]

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As we wrap up the 30-Day Couples Gratitude Challenge, it’s time to reflect on the journey we’ve taken together and the powerful transformations that small, daily acts of gratitude can bring to a relationship. Over the past month, we’ve explored the themes of appreciation, shared memories, celebrating uniqueness, and envisioning a shared future. Each week has offered opportunities to reconnect, rediscover, and deepen the bond between partners.

But although the challenge may be ending, the journey of gratitude is only just beginning. This challenge has been an experiment in nurturing the positive elements that make relationships stronger, and the real growth happens as you carry these beneficial practices forward.

What We’ve Learned: The Power of 30 Days

These past 30 days have shown us that taking just a few minutes each day to acknowledge, celebrate, and appreciate our partners can have a profound effect. The simplicity of small, consistent acts of gratitude reinforces connection, reminds us of our partner’s unique qualities, and builds a foundation of trust. This foundation, strengthened by daily reflections and small actions, helps couples feel more connected, supported, and resilient.

By revisiting the themes of the challenge, we can see why each was vital for long-term relationship satisfaction:

  • Building Appreciation for the Present helped couples recognize the small moments that bring joy and comfort.
  • Reflecting on Shared Moments allowed partners to revisit their journey, reinforcing the bond they’ve built together.
  • Celebrating Unique Qualities encouraged admiration and acceptance, reminding couples of the individuality that makes their connection special.
  • Fostering Lasting Connection inspired couples to dream together, setting shared goals and a vision for the future.

From Reflection to Action: Keeping Gratitude Alive

The challenge may be complete, but the benefits of gratitude continue. Here are some simple ways to integrate these practices into your daily life, turning the lessons from this challenge into lasting habits:

  1. Keep a Shared Gratitude Journal: Start a journal where you and your partner can jot down moments of appreciation, funny memories, or goals for the future. This creates a space for ongoing reflection and connection.
  2. Weekly or Monthly Check-Ins: Set aside time to celebrate each other’s unique qualities or share moments from your relationship journey. This can be a structured date night or a simple conversation over coffee.
  3. Revisit Shared Goals: Remember the dreams and goals you discussed during the challenge? Check in on these intentions and continue planning new adventures together.

Looking Ahead: The Beginning of a New Connection

While the 30-Day Couples Gratitude Challenge might have been an experiment, it’s one that demonstrates the incredible impact of intentional time and effort. Completing this challenge isn’t just the end of an activity; it’s the beginning of a new, deeper commitment to each other. Use this foundation of gratitude as a stepping stone toward an even more connected and resilient relationship.

As you move forward, remember that the heart of this challenge lies in the consistency of small, loving acts. Keep the spirit of gratitude alive by acknowledging the good in each other, celebrating your shared journey, and setting intentions for a meaningful future together. Here’s to a lifetime of love, connection, and gratitude!

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Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict. SE facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotion.


SE offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states. It provides effective skills appropriate to a variety of healing professions including mental health, medicine, physical and occupational therapies, bodywork, addiction treatment, first response, education, and others— Excerpt taken from SETI.

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders resulting from multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease. Excerpt taken from SETI

An Embodied approach to healing

Trauma may result from a wide variety of stressors such as accidents, invasive medical procedures, sexual or physical assault, emotional abuse, neglect, war, natural disasters, loss, birth trauma, or the corrosive stressors of ongoing fear and conflict. SE facilitates the completion of self-protective motor responses and the release of thwarted survival energy bound in the body, thus addressing the root cause of trauma symptoms. This is approached by gently guiding clients to develop increasing tolerance for difficult bodily sensations and suppressed emotion.


SE offers a framework to assess where a person is “stuck” in the fight, flight or freeze responses and provides clinical tools to resolve these fixated physiological states. It provides effective skills appropriate to a variety of healing professions including mental health, medicine, physical and occupational therapies, bodywork, addiction treatment, first response, education, and others— Excerpt taken from SETI.

Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a body-oriented approach to the healing of trauma and other stress disorders resulting from multidisciplinary study of stress physiology, psychology, ethology, biology, neuroscience, indigenous healing practices, and medical biophysics, together with over 45 years of successful clinical application. The SE approach releases traumatic shock, which is key to transforming PTSD and the wounds of emotional and early developmental attachment trauma. Trauma may begin as acute stress from a perceived life-threat or as the end product of cumulative stress. Both types of stress can seriously impair a person’s ability to function with resilience and ease. Excerpt taken from SETI

An Embodied approach to healing

Excerpt taken from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. 

Sensorimotor Psychotherapy (SP) is a complete treatment modality to heal trauma and attachment issues. SP welcomes the body as an integral source of information for processing past experiences relating to upsetting or traumatic events and developmental wounds. SP incorporates the physical and sensory experience, as well as thoughts and emotions, as part of the person’s complete experience of both the trauma itself and the process of healing. Excerpt taken from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute.  


An Embodied approach to healing

SP seeks to restore a person’s ability to process information without being triggered by past experience. SP uses a three-phase treatment approach to gently guide the client through the therapeutic process – Safety and Stabilization, Processing, and Integration. The therapist must pay close attention to the client to ensure that they are not overwhelmed by the process while simultaneously engaging their own abilities and capacities for healing.

It is thought that SP strengthens instinctual capacities for survival and assists clients to re-instate or develop resources which were unavailable or missing at the time the trauma or wounding occurred. Once resources are developed and in place, the traumatic event can be processed with the aid of resources. SP is a well-developed approach with decades of success in the treatment of trauma and developmental wounds. — Excerpt taken from Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute. 

Excerpt taken from ACBS Association for Contextual Behavioral Science. 

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a comprehensive multi-diagnostic, modularized behavioral intervention designed to treat individuals with severe mental disorders and out-of-control cognitive, emotional and behavioral patterns. It has been commonly viewed as a treatment for individuals meeting criteria for Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) with chronic and high-risk suicidality, substance dependence or other disorders. However, over the years, data has emerged demonstrating that DBT is also effective for a wide range of other disorders and problems, most of which are associated with difficulties regulating emotions and associated cognitive and behavioral patterns. 

radical acceptance and change

As the name implies, dialectical philosophy is a critical underpinning of DBT. Dialectics is a method of logic that identifies the contradictions (antithesis) in a person's position (thesis) and overcomes them by finding the synthesis. Additionally, in DBT a client cannot be understood in isolation from his or her environment and the transactions that occur. Rather, the therapist emphasizes the transaction between the person and their environment both in the development and maintenance of any disorders. It is also assumed that there are multiple causes as opposed to a single factor affecting the client. And, DBT uses a framework that balances the treatment strategies of acceptance and change - the central dialectical tension in DBT. Therapists work to enhance the capability (skills) of their client as well as to develop the motivation to change. Maintaining that balance between acceptance and change with clients is crucial for both keeping a client in treatment and ensuring they are making progress towards their goals of creating a life worth living. — Taken from DBT-Linehan Board of Certification. (click to learn more)

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