Research consistently shows that long-term couples spend an average of 35 minutes a week in meaningful conversation, versus over 5 hours a day on their phones.
Not because they don't love each other. Because there's no trigger. No moment that says now is the time to actually connect.
The typical fix? Couples therapy (expensive, time-consuming, feels like work). A weekend away (hard to coordinate, even harder to budget). Date night at a restaurant (you sit across from each other and talk about the kids or the mortgage and call it "time together").
None of those are bad. But none of them reliably close the gap between the couple you are and the couple you want to be.
What closes that gap is something simpler: curiosity, laughter, and a little vulnerability; on purpose, regularly, without the pressure of it being a "big thing."