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7 tips for protecting your marriage from infidelity

Posted at 1:45 PM, Oct 28, 2016
and last updated 2016-10-28 15:45:12-04

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Laura Heck shared Seven Tips for Protecting your Marriage from Infidelity cited from the work of Dr. Shirley Glass.

A happy marriage is NOT a vaccine against infidelity. Good people in good relationships are still vulnerable to betrayal. Statistics on partners who have been sexually unfaithful in their relationship are around 25% for women and 50% for men, the stats increase 10-15% more if you include emotional infidelity. Platonic friendships, co-workers, neighbors and old flames run the risk of evolving into a romantic love affair. In hindsight, most regret the pain and agony that an affair has caused their partner and family and wish they had been better equip to avoid the slippery slope to infidelity. Use these seven tips for maintaining safe boundaries and a secure marriage.

1. Maintain appropriate boundaries in your relationship and with those outside your relationship by: 1) remaining transparent with your partner and 2) keeping intimate details of your relationship private from outsiders.

2. Be ware of co-worker relationships pushing the boundaries. Don't dine alone with the same co-worker, either mix it up or dine in groups. When traveling, keep meetings in public places and avoid meetings in rooms with beds. Stay out of the hotel bar.

3. Avoid emotional intimacy with attractive alternatives.

4. Protect your marriage by maintaining marriage positive company. Return negativity with positive and uplifting comments about your partner and relationship.

5. Keep old flames from reigniting. Couples who rekindled romances and ended up staying together had extremely high rates of staying together, especially if it was your first love (78%). Old flames can be particularly harmful to an existing relationship.

6. Create a united and transparent front on social media, text messages, snap chat, etc. Allow your partner access to social media pages. Invite your partner in on private message discussions to create a unified front.

7. Don't get stuck in comparing possible alternatives. Recognize that attraction to another person is completely normal but fantasizing about that person is not normal and the spiral from thinking about an attractive alternative is detrimental to the relationship. Affairs begin in the mind.

For more tips from Laura gohere.