Gottman calls these “bids for connection ... Just as you started with a love map of each other’s inner worlds, now, at this stage, you create a love map of your shared world.

John and Julie Gottman introduced the Sound Relationship ... among others, is to develop a “love map.” As its name suggests, a love map is your navigation system within a relationship.

In their quest to discover what makes love last, clinical psychologists and researchers John and Julie Gottman interviewed more than 3,000 couples and followed some for as long as 20 years.