Fire up your love affair

Need to get your relationship back on track after growing apart? Scratch the freezer burn off your once-hot romance? These smart steps should do the trick.

- Jonathan Rowe

THERE ARE MORE THAN 7000 known spoken languages on earth, and the lamest sentence in all of them is: "If you love something, let it go."

That's especially true when it comes to reconnecting with a person you love, from whom you feel you've grown apart. Decide to just "let it go", and you can probably kiss that love affair goodbye for good. But put in some due diligence, and you've got a shot at not just recementing your bond but also rekindling your love.

We asked marriage and family therapist Winifred M. Reilly, author of It Takes One to Tango: How I Rescued My Marriage with (Almost) No Help from My Spouse and How You Can, Too, to walk us through how to pull things together when they seem to be coming apart.

Swallow your pride

To paraphrase the waffle ads, "Leggo your ego". Yes, admitting there's trouble in your relationship can be tough and can make you feel vulnerable - but don't look at it as a personal failure. It takes a strong person to take that first step, so give yourself credit for realising there might be an issue.