Lasting Love and Emotional Intelligence

“Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies” – Aristotle

I vividly remember a phone call I had one day with my older sister, as a young man, having recently met Sandy, my girlfriend, as a coworker in a busy restaurant. As big sisters do, she wanted to know all about her. “What makes her so special” she asked? “I don’t know; it’s hard to explain. I feel her all over. It’s like she’s in my body.” The universe was drawing us together in ways that we weren’t fully aware of. We used to lay outside on beautiful sunny days in a dream state, catching rays and having picnics with each other. One day in particular we had a heart to heart conversation in which we shared intimate details of our lives—the good stuff and the hard stuff. That conversation fostered a love we have shared with each other through three children, 31 years of marriage, 23 years of running a business together, and most recently authoring my first book which was dedicated to: “Sandy, My Love and Inspiration, Always and Forever.”

The initial stages of love are truly magic and relationships need to be nurtured to keep the love strong. One of the most powerful ways to nurture relationships is to strive to be emotionally intelligent with each other. Emotional intelligence in relationships is being aware of our feelings in any given moment and picking up on the feelings and needs of our partner. Sandy and I have had many “date nights” over the years where we pull ourselves away from all of the stresses of jobs and children to reconnect and rekindle the dream state. It took some practice at first for us to learn to block everything out and attune with each other. Like anything, the more you do it, the easier it gets. The more attuned we are with our partners, the more we are able to understand and accept our strengths and weaknesses. And the more accepting we are of our strengths and weaknesses in relationships, the more we are able to complete each other and create a soul connection much greater than our individual selves.

This being the month for love my hope is for you to spend some quality time with your partner to ignite the flame and fuel the passion in your relationship!

-Dr. David Hoy