It's inevitable: Sooner or later, the intense passion that characterized the beginning of the relationship will start to dwindle.  Little things you once thought cute about your significant become a source of annoyance. The end of the so-called honeymoon phase ushers in reality, when both people's flaws are in full view and you actually have to put in effort to sustain your partnership. Gone are the days when love notes and makeout sessions had you on cloud nine and little else mattered. Once couples have to reckon with this natural phase of an aging relationship, some -- especially those who have been together a long time -- quickly panic, taking this to mean the relationship is on its last legs.  But this isn't always the case.  A relationship is only as strong as the effort BOTH partners put into it. This means that, yes, a 10-year-old relationship could actually be healthier than a 10-month-old one.  So what exactly is the secret sauce to keeping a relationship e...

I've noticed that every time I request a couple of days off, one of my co-workers immediately asks, "So where are you going?" They assume that if a person plans to be out for three or four days, they must be planning a vacation. While that's always a possibility, what happened to requesting time off just to relax? I've done this on several occasions over the years. Reality check: Some of us actually like using the free time to:  Sleep in  Binge-watch Netflix in our underwear or  pajamas  Catch up on our reading  Watch a movie at the local theater  Hit up a nearby beach  Do things around the house, like clean,  organize, or renovate Traveling can be fun, but it can also be awfully draining. Between planning, packing, walking, and hailing cabs, it can often feel like work in itself. In other words, people sometimes take time off to travel and end up feeling as tired -- if not more so -- when they come back home than if they had go...