It is always important to comfort, encourage, and affirm one another. When you are, a married couple learns to be independent stand on your own two feet as a couple and not be dependent either financially or emotionally on either of your parents. Privacy and space is all important so respect one another in that manner. When it comes to marriage advice, it seems everyone has an opinion. It doesn’t seem to matter how much people know about your relationship, how little they know about the circumstances surrounding the issue you are having with your partner, everyone you know – and even strangers who just happen overhear you discussing the problem – will tell you exactly what you should do. Research has found that couples that practice common law marriage are up to three times more likely to suffer a divorce than traditional marriage types unless you have premarital education and participate in common law marriage with the first and only person you live with. Because the laws of all states that recognize common law marriage require death or formal divorce to dissolve a common law marriage, you are not skirting your obligations or the gravity of commitment by foregoing a formal wedding. While the tradition continues in some cultures today, most modern marriages are based on romantic love, with couples deciding freely to marry. Many of the traditions surrounding contemporary weddings can be traced throughout the history of marriage. Wedding rings date as far back as Egyptian society, where the circle symbolized eternity. The reason why people sign marriage contracts in the first place is so that they can avoid a long period of litigation if their marriage breaks down. If the agreement is not fair to both parties (or even if one party feels that it is unfair), he or she can take the matter to court and ask a judge to set aside the marriage contract. True happiness is an attitude of noticing the good constantly coming our way. You will find that there is so much good coming every minute, there is no need to hand onto the past. We need to grasp onto a rope to keep ourselves from drowning even on dry land. The trick to finding happiness in our own lives and that of our marriage is to get into the habit of looking for good things, instead of griping all day about everything that has gone wrong.