10 Tips For Maintaining A Strong Connection With Your Significant Other

Maintaining a strong connection with the person you’re in love with can be difficult sometimes. Things change, people change, and lifestyles are constantly evolving, especially when you are young and still figuring things out. However, there’s a way to stay in touch with one another, and stay connected to each other in a meaningful way, as long as you and your partner are willing to try. In the interest of saving a few relationships, here are 10 tips for maintaining a nice and strong connection with the person you love!

1. Have Good Communication

Communication is the very first thing that a relationship needs to be successful. You have to be able to talk to your partner in a way that you both can understand one another. Your significant other is going to have feelings and thoughts that you won’t have because you’re different people. You have to be willing to listen and try your hardest to understand their point of view, and they have to do the same for you. Being straightforward and honest with the person you love most shouldn’t be scary, but it can be quite difficult, and there’s nothing wrong with that. You should try to find someone who is easy to talk to, but even then, certain things are just hard to say, but in order for a relationship to work, you have to be willing to say them.

2. Always Be Honest

There are few things that hurt more than being lied to, especially by someone who you’re supposed to be able to trust no matter what. It may sound obvious, but honesty is key in any and every relationship. No one has been happy for very long in a relationship with someone who is always lying or withholding the truth. It isn’t worth the pain that follows to constantly allow yourself to be lied to, so it’s often a reason for breaking things off. Avoid such a tragic end to your relationship by being honest, no matter what the truth may be. If the person loves you, you’ll find a way to make it work. There shouldn’t be any reason for lying, so if you find yourself wanting to, chances are, you shouldn’t be in a relationship.

3. Find Reasons To Laugh

If you’re in a relationship with someone, there’s a reason for it. They must make you happy, or make you feel safe or accepted or something, otherwise, you wouldn’t be in a relationship with them. No matter your specific and personal reasons for loving one another, almost every coupling is based on the ability to have fun together. That’s the whole point of dating in the beginning, to find out if you two are compatible and capable of enjoying each other’s company. If you are, be sure to hold onto that quality in your relationship. Too often couples begin taking one another for granted and the little moments of laughter and joy start to disappear. Make sure to encourage those moments, and leave room for them in your daily lives.

4. Find Time To Snuggle

It has been scientifically proven that spending time being physically held by someone you trust is extremely calming and releases extra serotonin in your brain to boost happiness and calmness. If you want to maintain a relationship where being close to one another is a place of happiness and contentment, you should regularly spend time relaxing in the arms of your lover. Whether you spend time reading, watching a film, talking, or in silence before bed, spending time in physical closeness is necessary to keep a strong connection between you and the person you love.

5. Try To Stay Intimate

Intimacy is a huge factor in a relationship for many people. For some, however, it is unimportant. Chances are, if you are going to be in a successful relationship with someone, you should be on relatively the same sides of the intimacy spectrum, and whatever you can’t or don’t want to agree to, needs to be accepted by your partner. Intimacy is a hugely consent-driven experience, and it can only be enjoyed and valuable if both parties are comfortable with what’s happening. Understanding one anothers wants and desires sexually and emotionally is necessary for a relationship to work, and it’s important that you are both always on the same page. Maintaining that level of respect for one another will result in a relationship worth being in and fighting for.

6. Stay Loyal & Committed

Relationships are dependent on trust, and part of maintaining that trust is remaining loyal and committed to your significant other. If you love who you’re with, don’t take them for granted. They don’t deserve to put up with you coming home late every night, wondering where you are. They shouldn’t have to beg you to talk to them, help them, be with them. Relationships take 100% effort from both sides, and without that, they’re destined to crumble. If you love the person you’re with, talk to them before you go talking to someone else. Love them before loving someone else. Be loyal and committed to them, and you may just make it work. Loyalty and commitment are key to maintaining a strong connection in your relationship.

7. Support One Another

Supporting one another takes on many forms. To some, it means financially. To others, it means emotionally. For a few, it even means physically. Everyone needs something different from a relationship, and it’s up to you to figure out what you need. Once you have it figured out, you have to find out if your loved one can give you that, and if you are able to give them what they need. If his dream is to become a teacher, you have to stand by him while he spends his day at school, his nights working on homework, his weekends working. You have to accept that it may take a few years before he moves out of his parents’ house. It’s little things like this that have to be supported and accepted, otherwise, there’s a good chance the relationship will not last.

8. Make Time For Date Night

Make sure to put aside at least a day or two a month for date night with your significant other. Even if the night is spent staying home, eating take-out, and watching a movie together, you two should have time alone together, dedicated to nothing but enjoying each other’s company. It’s understandable that you are both very busy. Maybe there’s work, maybe you’re in school, maybe you have a child. No matter what you have going on, it is crucial to spend time on only each other every now and again. This is how you keep your strong connection to one another, and how you keep the spark alive!

9. Surprise Each Other

Some people claim to get bored with whoever they’re with after spending a long time together. That is often the excuse people give when caught cheating. There is absolutely no reason for that. If you love someone, take the extra step and do what you can to give them a little bit of excitement in their life. Know he loves a certain football team who happens to be in town next month? Buy tickets to the game! Know she’s been looking forward to a certain make-up palette that’s being released soon? Pre-order it for her! Small, simple things like this are sweet ways to surprise your loved one and show them that you still listen, and you still care, and you always will.

10. Know When To Give Them Space (And When To Stay)

Everyone goes through rough patches in their lifetime. Most people lose loved ones, some people experience failure, some face medical scares and emergencies, some have mental health problems. Everyone faces their own struggle, and some choose to do it alone. Others take it out on other people. You have to know your significant other and understand how they react to big life events. Some people constantly want you close by and smothering. Others want quiet alone time, to think, mourn, or simply figure things out. In a relationship, you have to understand your personality, and you have to respect their wishes should they need some space. You should also know not to blame yourself, or think less of your relationship. Some people are wired differently, and loving someone takes patience and understanding.