Let's face it. Falling in love is easy, staying in love is another matter. It's downright tough. And why shouldn't it be? We're not born knowing how to have successful relationships.

Marriages don't come with instruction manuals. Marriage licenses are one of the few licenses people can get without an education.

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So how do you know what to do after you fall in love? We import the lessons about relationships that we learned as children into our marriages as adults. But many of us haven't had healthy role models. That's why we shoot from the hip, with lousy results.

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Having a great marriage isn't about choosing the right person, it's about doing the right things to keep love alive.

The good news is that research has taught us a great deal about what it takes to make love last.

It takes skills, relationship skills. And the even better news is that these skills can be learned. You can learn how to communicate lovingly and effectively.

You can learn how to co-parent cooperatively. You can learn how to negotiate your differences about sex, money, in-laws, how free time is spent, who does what around the house, how best to take care of your health and so on.

You can learn how to fight fairly. You can even learn how to forgive your spouse for wrongdoings and let go of emotionally-damaging grudges.

But this is not to say that Michele doesn't understand the important role feelings play in relationships that work. In fact, she's convinced that people won't practice the skills they learn unless their hearts are open.

Therefore, throughout the skill-building program, Michele intersperses engaging, inspiring, and humorous stories that touch people's hearts and breed a sense of forgiveness, acceptance and caring.