Posted 9:14 AM by Blah blah

You must read this juicy juicy dating story which happened last Friday night to Edie, the woman who blogs solely about her dating life in New York City. Hope she finds him again!

Susan Page: How to Make Your Relationship Thrive (Part 1)

Raymond turns Oprah again. I just bought this book, The 8 Essential Traits of Couples Who Thrive, by Susan Page. I don't often buy relationship books, but her first few chapters made a lot of sense, so I decided to really study this book. The next few days, I'm gonna skin, gut, and digest this book for you. Right here!

Susan's bio. From this page of her site:

"Q: Susan, what makes your books so different from other books about relationships?

A: Two qualities distinguish my work:

First, most information about relationships is written by psychologists who spend their time with dysfunctional, unhappy couples or singles. I studied happy couples to see if I could find qualities or behavior that they all have in common. I uncovered a gold mine. These are qualities you won’t read about in other books, because troubled couples don’t have them, yet they are qualities we can all learn!

Second, my books do not emphasize communication skills but focus instead on loving actions and gentle experiments that can transform your relationship more quickly and with less effort."

What makes Tiger Cafe unique is I go deeper than most blogs. I assume you have a brain and a longer attention span. But I always try to keep it fun and interesting. I just ask today that you write me feedback on what YOU think about Susan's ideas. Many of you come here daily but never write me. I don't know who you are. Let's have a two-way dialogue for this book. Maybe I'll ask permission to post something you said. Then we all can learn from each others' stories. Fair? Ok, let's go!
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How do we make our relationships last? And not just last, but be fun, vibrant, and evolving? Most of us want this. I do. How do we deal with the biggest problem of most relationships: the dreaded "changing my partner"? Susan says we need to stop trying to change our partners and start changing ourselves and our approach to them.

So going into Susan's book, I hope we can find a way to be creative about relationships. To find the win-win solution. To kill nagging and all of those psycho-childhood feelings from our equation.

The 8 Essential Traits of Couples Who Thrive:

Table of Contents

Trait 1: Desire, Belief, and Commitment
Trait 2: Goodwill
Trait 3: Clear Values Part A: Time
Trait 3: Clear Values Part B: Aliveness
Trait 4: Boundaries
Trait 5: Perspective
Trait 6: Relationship-Enhancing Communication
Trait 7: Intimacy
Trait 8: Pleasure Part A: Sex
Trait 8: Pleasure Part B: Passion
Creating a Thriving Marriage in a Troubled World

Stay tuned! And please write me (I won't nag).