10 Tips For Keeping Your Relationship Healthy

A relationship takes work to maintain, but these ten tips are a surefire way to help you keep the course steady.

1. Spend time together

It’s easy to get caught up in work and other individual responsibilities, but you have to remember to prioritise your partner. Make sure the time you spend together counts, and that you’re present for it with your body and your mind.

2. Spend time apart

As much as you need to spend quality time together, you also each need you own individual ‘me-time’, in order to decompress and do your own thing. While in a relationship you’re two halves of a whole, you’re also two separate, individual people, and that has to be respected.

3. Learn each other’s love languages

People express their love in different ways. Some do it by buying gifts, some do it through verbal affirmations, others do it through physical contact. This is known as a love language, and your partner’s may be different to yours. Learn to recognise it and appreciate it, and your relationship will be much stronger for it.

4. Be compassionate and understanding

In a tough situation, put yourself in the other person’s shoes and try to see it from their perspective. Even if you can’t arrive at an agreement, come to a point where you can say ‘I see what you mean’, and reach a compromise from there.

5. Honesty is the best policy

Misunderstandings and doubts lead to easily avoidable quarrels. Be truthful, honest and kind in all circumstances.

6. Keep it sexy

Sex is an integral part of a healthy relationship, and keeping it fresh and flirty is vital to maintaining it in the long-term. If things have gone a little stale in the bedroom, perhaps it’s time to take a look at the underlying reasons.

7. Have date nights

They don’t need to be super-expensive, lavish nights out, but an evening once a week where you make an effort to dress up and go somewhere nice simply to enjoy each other’s company is a must.

8. Don’t fight dirty

Even when you’re really angry at your partner, don’t be cruel and pick on their insecurities or things that you know they’re sensitive and easily hurt by. Learn how to make your point like an adult.

9. Apologise sincerely

When you realise that you made a mistake, make an apology that’s genuine and comes from the heart. Saying something like “I’m sorry you were offended” won’t cut it, because it still puts the blame on your partner for taking offence. Have the courage to shoulder the mistake when you know you did wrong.