We often credit our parents or grandparents generations of having longer lasting relationships and more solid relationships. While this may be the case, but relationships like these do not just happen randomly. They require consistent effort from both partners.
Here are some valuable lessons we can take from couples with the strongest relationships.
1. Understanding the value of compromise:
You may not always want to do what your partner wants. You really don’t care for a dinner party you just got an invite to go to. You’d rather be doing anything else besides this double date with his/her weirdo friends, but, you do it with a smile on your face anyway, because it is important to your partner and you know they would do it for you in return.
2. Giving your partner your undivided attention:
There’s is a new problem that our generation has been facing. Our parents and grandparents didn’t sit on the couch in silence on their smartphones, they interacted with each other. They spent quality time together. They really absorbed each other’s presence. Technology is a highly effective tool for streaming online and staying in touch when we are not together, but if we want to build a deep connection with someone, we need to unplug when we are with them.
3. Share new experiences together:
Be it something as simple as watching a movie neither of you has seen, or something as extreme as skydiving for the first time together or something else that’s exciting, which helps you in finding value in sharing new experiences with your partner. Particularly in a relationship, this is something that your girlfriend or boyfriend has never seen, heard, or felt before. Both of your minds are being opened to something new and unique for the very first time, together.
4. Do not let the intimacy fade:
Romance should not fade after the ‘honeymoon’ phase of a relationship, it should increase over time as your partner becomes a bigger and more important part of your life.
5. Don’t stop doing the little things:
If you are shopping at the store and their favorite candy is on the shelf, grab some of it. Bring home flowers randomly. Plan a date night. The small things you do for someone randomly, count the most, as it shows you don’t need a holiday or a special occasion to do something nice. You just do it because you’re in love.
6. Take care of your partner when they are sick:
Nobody wants to get sick and nobody enjoys it, but being in a relationship is not just about being there when things are great, it’s also about stepping in to do what it takes when things are not great. Cancel your dinner plans, go to the store for the medicine they need and do whatever it takes to make him or her feel better.
