Relationships & Romance
How To Make Your Long Distance Relationship Work
How To Make Your Long Distance Relationship Work
Romantic relationships require a great deal of work to keep healthy and alive but long distance relationships require even more work to ensure it works out.
Indeed maintaining a long distance relationship is quite the task and a lot of such relationships tend not to work out in the end. But with the right planning strategies and dedication from both partners of course, some long distance relationships have been able to make it through these difficulties.
How To Maintain A Long Distance Relationship
Regular Communication
In maintaining a good relationship, communication is key and more so when maintaining a long distance relationship. It is quite easy to misinterpret or misunderstand the message your partner is attempting to pass. This is why proper and regular communication is very important.
Speak with each other at the very least, once a day. Find new and creative ways to be part of each other’s day. The age we find ourselves in has made keeping in touch a whole lot easier. You could chat using any of the available social media platforms, send pictures, emails, voice notes and even video call.
Trust
Insecurities will most likely creep up at some point in a long distance relationship. Do not go around stalking his online activities and questioning his connection with the people he relates with. Try as much as possible not to read unnecessary meaning into your partner’s calls and messages or lack of it.
In a long distance relationship there should be no room for assumptions. There may be a perfectly good explanation for his actions or inactions so try finding out instead. Trust is just as important as communication if you want the relationship’s survival.
Plan Visitations
By making future visitation plans, it gives you both something to look forward to. Make these plans and honor them. In a year you could map out a plan on how visits are going to play out.
Physically seeing each other strengthens your bonds and gives both parties the opportunity to trash out whatever challenges may have cropped up while you both where apart. Frequent visitation not only gives you both the pleasure of each other’s company but gives you the opportunity to physically connect with each other.
Carve Out A Life For Yourself
Your daily activities and general lifestyle should not only revolve around speaking with your partner and waiting for his reply to your messages. Get yourself busy doing things you love and enjoy. Pursue fun hobbies or positive things you are passionate about. Keeping yourself happy will ensure you don’t unconsciously begin creating holes in your relationship and eventually destroy it.
Romantic Ideas For Long Distance Relationships
When coming up with romantic ideas for a long distance relationship creativity is important. Consider trying out a few of these things.
Plan and do things together even though you are apart. You both could try watching a movie or a show at the same time. Share views and make comments about it with each other.
Try having dinner together while video calling and talk about how the day went. Take a walk together while video calling; this could be fun as well. Share tracks of your favorite songs with each other. Play online games together if you both are the gaming type.
For every time you guys meet up, get your partner a gift. Something small will do. This helps them think of you whenever the gift is sighted.
Make it a habit to mark and celebrate special occasions together whether you are in the same location or not. Birthdays, anniversaries and things like that.
Carry out your phone chats using voice messages rather than written text. Listening to your partner’s voice makes chatting much warmer and makes you feel closer to them.
Wake your partner up with a good morning call or message as often as possible. Be part of each other’s day by sending photos as your day progresses.
Send a surprise gift package or better yet plan a little visit to your partner to pleasantly surprise him/her.
Are Long Distance Relationships Healthy?
Long distance relationships have challenges no doubt about that but if properly handled, it can be just as good and successful as regular relationships. The tendency for a long distance relationship to become unhealthy is quite high. This is because it is much easier for suspicion, distrust, assumptions to set in and communication break-down can set in as well. These things could bring on a lot of stress on an individual and on the long run the relationship just might become an unhealthy one.
But this doesn’t mean all long distance relationships are unhealthy. These same issues could also crop up in regular relationships as well. The important thing is to build a strong foundation for your relationship which is based on strong and clear communication also on total honesty and trust. All relationships require this, but long distance relationship requires it more because of its nature.
To identify an unhealthy relationship, judge yours sincerely by looking out for certain signs
Bad Communication
When your relationship is devoid of good communication and honesty, anger and conflicts will most likely become a regular occurrence. This stems a lot of negative feelings and emotions.
Abuse
Be it physically or emotionally when you are constantly ridiculed, humiliated and put down by your partner, your mental and physical health will most likely begin to suffer as a result of such a relationship.
Dishonesty And Distrust
Honesty is a vital key to a successful and healthy relationship. Dishonest invariably results in a lack of trust and a relationship lacking in these two will definitely lead you into problems.
Feeling Of Insecurity
Insecurity is a pointer to underlying issues in an individual that needs to be fixed. Being insecure for no valid reason is definitely a problem and letting this feeling go unchecked will negatively tell on a relationship and you as an individual.
Break Up Threats
When your partner frequently uses break-up as a threat to put you in check, it creates an atmosphere of insecurity and sees you fighting to please your partner and keep the relationship at all cost. At this point such a relationship is not considered healthy.
Control And Manipulation
This is a very valid sign of an unhealthy relationship. If a controlling and manipulative partner is given the chance, he/she could cause untold damage. When a partner possesses either or both of such qualities in a relationship, it is advisable to let go of such a partner and such a relationship.
Over-Dependency
Relying on your partner for one thing or the other is good. Spending time and wanting to be close to your partner is also good. But when one or both partners cannot exist outside of each other, then that’s a sure problem. Both parties should have a life outside of their relationship as well.
These signs and much more are pointing to an unhealthy relationship. Any relationship you find yourself that leaves you guessing, stresses you out and constantly drains your energy while giving little or nothing in return, is of no good to you.
Take a step back and access such a union and make the necessary changes. Giving your all to a relationship is good but, be wise enough to know when you are being taken advantage of.
What To Know Before Starting A Long Distance Relationship
Before taking the leap into a long distance relationship the first thing you should know is that it will not be easy. Sometimes, you may feel you’re being neglected, frustration may set in and avoidable fights will most likely occur. But if you are both willing to give it your all and make it work then it is possible, not easy, but possible. Be honest with each other on what you want out of the relationship, talk it over and know your stand and what is expected.
Doubt
Feelings of doubt will crop up at one point or the other during a long distance relationship. Your thoughts will move towards the negative quite often and you will have to curb this. When experiencing doubt, base or baseless, talk it through with your partner clearly and truthfully. This will help clear up your doubts most often than not.
Solid Trust
This is what will most likely keep your relationship from breaking up when challenges come up. In this case it can be rather difficult as you don’t get to see your partner and know only what your partner tells you. But trust is crucial to the survival of your relationship and you have to really work at building a solid foundation of trust else the relationship may as well be already doomed. Avoid being unnecessarily suspicious of your partners actions.
Long distance relationships can be just as successful as your regular everyday relationship. But it is also germane that couples in such relationships try living in the same vicinity for a while before making things serious. This will help them access their compatibility better. Living in the same location, you both will see each other regularly and this helps you know if your relationship can work through distance as well as in close proximity.