Love is not the only thing that a relationship requires to exist. A relationship needs the nurturing and care of two individuals to thrive. It needs the strong emotional bond between two people fully accepting and trusting each other. It needs the will of two adults to give to each other a lot more than just love.
In order for a relationship to be healthy, loving, and happy, there needs to be:
1. Honesty.
If you and your partner aren’t able to fully trust each other, then what’s the point of being together?
In order for you to build a healthy, loving, and long-lasting relationship, you and your significant other need to always be honest with each other. You need to earn each other’s trust and make sure you never put yourself in a situation where you’d have to lie to and manipulate each other. You need to tell it like it is and you must never betray the trust your partner has in you.
2. Constant and open communication.
In order for a relationship to be healthy, harmonious, and long-lasting, both partners need to be able to freely and openly share their ideas, opinions, and problems with each other.
In addition to showing interest in what your partner has to say, you need to respect their opinion regardless of how different it may be from your own. The more you and your significant other communicate, the closer you’ll be.
3. Mutual respect.
Unless you and your significant other respect each other, know that you can give up the idea of building a stable, loving relationship. You should never be with someone that doesn’t respect your feelings, your needs, your ideas, your plans, or your decisions. Because when your partner treats you that way, this shows that they don’t love you and care about you. It shows that they couldn’t care less about your relationship as well.
4. The will to work through disagreements and problems.
A healthy and successful relationship requires both partners’ will not to give up on each other at the first sign of trouble. Because throwing in the towel or blaming your partner for your own mistakes and wrongdoings is certainly not the path to happiness.
In order for you to build a stable and long-lasting relationship, you need to face the uneasiness and discomfort that accompany differing ideas and opinions.
5. Common goals and dreams.
Happy and successful couples have common goals that keep them from aimlessly drifting in their relationship. The more common goals they establish together, the more enthusiastic they are to pursue them as a couple and the deeper the bond between them becomes.
So, make sure you and your significant other always have goals and dreams to look forward to and which you’re working towards as a couple.
6. Emotional support and validation.
If your significant other doesn’t treat you with patience, compassion, and kindness, if they don’t accept you and cherish you for who you are, and if you don’t feel that they’re always there for you, you’ll never build a deep, happy, successful relationship. You’ll only build a one-sided, poor, toxic relationship – a relationship that is doomed to fail.
7. Fun.
Of course – FUN.
Unfortunately, the honeymoon phase does not last forever. Regardless of whether you and your partner have been together for 6 months or 6 years, things will begin to feel a bit dull eventually. The flame of passion between you will gradually wane. The romance will slowly disappear. You’ll begin getting bored. And that is where problems begin to appear.
So, to prevent this, both you and your partner need to make sure that you’ll keep the spark between you always alive. You need to make sure that you’ll always keep your relationship exciting, fun, and fresh.
8. Acceptance.
Accepting and loving your partner the way they are is a prerequisite for building a happy, loving, and long-lasting relationship. It’s a prerequisite for creating a close, deep bond with them.
Because loving someone truly means being aware of and embracing their annoying habits, whims, insecurities, and fears. It means knowing that their flaws don’t define who they are. It means knowing that their imperfections are what makes them different and special to you.
9. Common values.
Of course, you and your partner don’t need to have the same political views or religious beliefs. But, what you do need to have are common values. You need to agree on how you plan to nurture your relationship, raise your children if you have any, balance your career and family life, and treat the world around you.
Having common values will help you and your partner overcome more easily any challenge, temptation, and trial that might appear in your relationship.
10. Forgiveness.
We all make mistakes – that’s a fact. But, holding a grudge against the person who has done you wrong and carrying bitterness in your heart won’t make your pain go away, nor will it give them a taste of their own medicine, especially when that “person” happens to be your partner.
So, instead of behaving this way, learn to forgive your significant other for their mistakes. Allow them to put right their mistakes and make up for them.
