No one will listen or speak well if the overriding sentiment of the relationship is hostile, critical, or distant. Nor will you get anywhere taking a position about a hot issue if you’re coming from a place of angry reactivity, self-righteousness, or criticism. Instead, you need to be a model of the kind of behavior you want from your partner, not a critic. You need to treat your partner the way you’d like to feel about him, in order to evoke the positive feelings you’ve lost touch with.
