Falling in love is easy. It's a passive and spontaneous experience. But after a few years, the euphoria of love fades. It's the natural cycle of every relationship.

Slowly but surely, phone calls become a bother (if they come at all), touch is not always welcome (when it happens), and your partner's idiosyncrasies, instead of being cute, drive you nuts!

The symptoms of this stage varies with every relationship, but if you think about your relationship, you will notice a dramatic difference between the initial stage when you were in love and the place you're in now.

At this point, you and/or your spouse might start asking, "Am I with the right person?" And as you and your partner reflect on the great love you once had, you may begin to desire that experience with someone else. This is when marriages and long-term relationships break down. People blame their spouse for their unhappiness and look outside their relationship for fulfillment.

Some find this fulfillment in sports, some find it in TV games and some find it in another person. What most people only realise when it's too late is that the answer to the problem lies with in the relationship.

I'm not saying that falling in love with someone else doesn't feel great. I'm sure it feels wonderful. Temporarily. But you will end up in the same situation a few years down the line.
Why? Because the key to long-term relationships is not in finding the 'perfect' person. It's learning to love the person you've found.

This takes commitment and compromise. But in the end, it is extremely fulfilling. There are many ways that couples can 'bring back the spark' in their relationships, and just because you've fallen into a rut, it doesn't mean that you will never get out.

Don't give up on your relationships too soon. Make sure that you put in a lot of time and energy into making it work before you decide on the final outcome.