Woman says teaching her husband a non-verbal sign of love made a ‘huge difference’ in their relationship

Communication is fairly key in a relationship, but what do you do when one of you isn't a big talker?

One woman has shared how she helped get her husband to open up in a non-verbal way. She taught him a simple physical action to express the words "I love you" and said it's had a transformative effect on their relationship. Taking to Tumblr, she admitted that she once worried that her other half didn't love her as much as she loved him.

"I verbally express affection. A LOT. My husband... doesn't," she wrote in the post, as published on Metro. "I don't know why. For the longest time a part of me wondered if it meant he loved me less. "At some point I told him about a thing I had done as a kid. "Holding hands, three squeezes means 'I Love You'."

The woman was surprised to find that sharing this with him made a "huge difference". It turned out that having a non-verbal signifier for his love allowed her husband to express himself far more and their relationship benefitted in a big way.

"Suddenly he’s telling me I love you all the time. "Tap tap tap, on my hand, my shoulder, my knee, with whatever part of him that’s closest to me, more often than I ever verbally said it," she said. "It's an ingrained signal now, I can tap three times on whatever part of him and get three taps back in his sleep. Apparently I do the same."

The lesson, she concluded, is that not everyone communicates best in the same way.

"It's made a huge difference for us. People say things differently."

We love this – such a sweet reminder to try and meet your other half in the middle.