Remember when you were in grade school and Valentine’s day was fast approaching? Maybe you made individual valentines by hand or carefully chose a package at the store that best expressed your sentiments. As you filled them out, you chose which valentine was to go to a each person. One valentine maybe even expressed a crush you had on one of the boys or girls. That feeling was excitement. Would they guess who gave it to them? Would they guess how much you really cared? Did they care back? It was a special day and then life went back to normal.

What I know is that you can create that special feeling with your loved one this Valentine’s Day and every day going forward. The secret is things don’t have to go back to “normal”. You can add sparkle by remembering all the good things in your relationship every day. You can regularly recognize the magnitude of the commitment you have shared through the years, remind yourself and follow through with good communication every day, use persistence to find a way or learn how to work things out when you don’t agree, cherish each other generously on a regular basis and enjoy the communion of spirit that naturally emanates from your nurtured committed partnership.

If this description of a marriage doesn’t feel current or familiar to you , I recommend that you use these Five C’ to put the sparkle back in your marriage starting today. Talk with your partner about the good you have had between you, and all the good you can create through commitment, communication, conflict resolution, cherishing and communion of spirit. These tools will build and renew a sensual, sexy, satisfying , sincere and sparkling marriage. My husband and I use these five C’s all year long and they really work. We’ve worked hard to find them and I am happy to share them with you.

Use the Five C’s and some imagination and make this Valentines day sparkle between you again. I think I’ll begin by making my husband a special handmade Valentine and use sparkles all over it. Who knows what we’ll do next. Let the celebrating begin.