Forgive for Love: The Missing Ingredient for a Healthy and Lasting Relationship

Fred Luskin

Harper Collins, Dec 26, 2007 - Family & Relationships - 240 pages

Finding the love of your life and holding onto that relationship is more difficult than ever. The problem hasn't gone unnoticed. From relationship therapists to speed-dating, self-help books to online matchmaking, an entire industry has developed to help us navigate the bumpy road of relationships. Yet in spite of the availability of all these resources, many of us still struggle to discover and keep the love of our lives. That is, until now.

This groundbreaking book from the frontiers of psychology offers startling new research about the one missing factor that is vital to relationships—forgiveness. A national bestselling author and leading expert on forgiveness, Dr. Fred Luskin shows that no matter how much two people may love each other, their relationship will not succeed unless they practice forgiveness—an approach that most relationship experts continue to ignore.

Why is forgiveness an essential tool for relationships? Studies reveal that 70 percent for what we argue about at the beginning of our relationships will never be fully resolved. In other words, our basic needs and behaviors don't change over time. The issues are endless: the socks that always end up on the floor, how often to have sex, the ESPN obsession, working hours, and, of course, friends and family. Without forgiveness, these issues, however big or small, too easily turn into relationship-eroding grudges.

Forgive for Love is the solution for your relationship woes, providing the tools you need to find and hold onto the love of your life. Dr. Luskin delivers a proven seven-step program for creating and maintaining loving and lasting relationships, teaching easy-to-learn forgiveness skills that will not only resolve immediate conflicts but improve the overall happiness and longevity of your relationships. Simply put: people in healthy relationships figure out how to forgive their partners for being themselves. They do so because it is nearly impossible to change other people and because none of us are perfect. Forgiveness is the key, and Forgive for Love has the answers.

Contents

• one The Missing Factor: 1
• two What Is Forgiveness: 11
• three: 31
• four The Four Stages of Forgiveness: 51
• Dance with the One You Brought: 79
• Including You: 99
• Let Your Partner Know: 127
• To Know Them Is to Love Them: 149
• Accept What You Cant Change: 169
• Choose to Recommit: 199
• Please Give Yourself a Break: 209
• twelve Something to Keep in Mind: 227
• Notes: 233

About the author

Fred Luskin, Ph.D. is the author of Forgive for Good and one of the world's leading researchers and teachers on the subject of forgiveness. He is the director of the Stanford Forgiveness Project, a series of research projects that investigate forgiveness methods. He holds an appointment at the Stanford Center on Conflict and Negotiation as a senior fellow and is an associate professor at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. He lives in Palo Alto, California.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Forgive for Love: The Missing Ingredient for a Healthy and Lasting Relationship
• Author: Fred Luskin
• Publisher: Harper Collins, 2007
• ISBN: 006123494X, 9780061234941
• Length: 240 pages
• Subjects: Family & Relationships / Love & Romance; Family & Relationships / Marriage & Long-Term Relationships; Psychology / Interpersonal Relations; Self-Help / General; Self-Help / Personal Growth / General; Self-Help / Personal Growth / Happiness