Where are you coming from as a couple? Where are you heading together? The tandem metaphor used in the Happy Couples Roadmap, inspired by positive psychology tools and scientific research, captures the idea of travelling together and finding your balance by adjusting to each other. Being part of a couple is not static, its continuous dynamics require regular readapting. It is necessary to be active in your relationship and to communicate if you wish to maintain stability on the tandem and move in the same direction.
The Happy Couple Roadmap takes you on the journey to the past, through the present, before focusing on the future you wish to grow towards.
- The past: Remember the best of your past, it is the foundation of your relationship’s history and – more often than not – generates satisfaction, fulfilment, pride, gratefulness and serenity.
- The present: Welcome it and be active players in it. Do your best to cause joy, awe, calm, enthusiasm, pleasure, flow, etc.
- The future: Dream it, build your relationship and let yourself be transported by optimism, hope, faith, trust, etc.
This answer is easy – anyone involved in a romantic relationship! The Happy Couples Roadmap is both a personal and professional tool. Used professionally, coaches, psychologists, therapists and especially couple therapists can use the Happy Couples Roadmap in one-to-one sessions with their patients or clients.
The Happy Couples Roadmap is designed for repetitive use, with whiteboard markers.
Find some calm time together. Select one, or more, starred points to consider (in the Past, Present and Future). Give yourselves a couple of minutes to reflect alone, then write down your answers and share them with your partner!
The essential ingredients for exploration: care and kindness, respect, consideration, attention and authenticity. Prerequisites: Be open to being different, and in fact rejoice in that! Sustain your curiosity to find out more and more about your loved one.
This exercise can take a while to complete, anything between 30 minutes to 2 hours. It might be worth taking a picture of your completed roadmap to revisit later.