Your wedding band lets the world know that you’re married. It’s a sign of commitment, and in more traditional days, it was a sign of property — that is that you belonged to your husband. Only in more recent times have men started wearing rings to signify that they, too, are “owned” or committed to their wives — or in homosexual relations, to their appropriate partners.

The wedding band is a great signal to anyone who’s searching for a date or a mate that you’re taken! So, wearing your ring will send that message to anyone who’s looking — and there are lots of singles looking these days.

It’s entirely appropriate and okay for you to take your ring off if it’s uncomfortable. Whether you’re at the gym working on machines, in yoga class, or you’re doing something else where your ring is making you uncomfortable or is in the way, you can absolutely take it off. Any problems with this situation only come when your spouse doesn’t trust you, or vice versa. If that’s the case, you have more to talk about with your spouse than just whether or not you’re wearing your ring. You have trust and commitment issues.

But make sure that your ring is insured, if it’s valuable. Of course, if you do lose your ring, you will have lost more than just a pricey piece of jewelry. You will have lost something that is sentimental. So in addition to insuring your ring with an insurance company or putting a jewelry rider on your home owner’s policy to cover it’s possible loss, many women choose to wear a simple wedding band during the day and leave their pricey wedding jewelry for special or appropriate occasions. This way they get to still show their commitment and their marital status without running the risk of losing their wedding day jewelry or their engagement jewelry.