Surviving a long-distance relationship demands strong commitment, conviction, few guidelines, and, most importantly, outstanding and healthy communication between couples. Getting someone you can trust blindly, a shoulder to cry on and lean on whenever you are in dire need of someone yours, is a dream come true. It’s hard to let go of such a relationship at any point in time. When you feel connected with someone despite any distance, you want to make your long-distance relationship work, it is indeed challenging, but it is certainly not impossible. You can’t let go of someone you love just because you two can’t live in the same place. All you need is some patience, trust, and communication to have a healthy, pleasant relationship with someone, even if you see each other only a few times a month or even a year.
How to Survive a Long Distance Relationship?
A long-distance relationship creates emotional imbalance but never means that the love between couples cannot flourish. Even couples who live together physically have many issues and arguments for petty reasons. We can’t deny that the risk of hardships is even higher when there is a distance. Women are mostly affected as they are emotionally more fragile than men. The distance barrier effect will be minimal if you truly love each other; just be optimistic about your relationship. If you keep thinking that the relationship will not work, trust me, it will not work. You have to be very honest, loyal, and open with each other if you are truly invested in surviving a long-distance relationship. Let’s look at some tips on how to stay positive and survive a long-distance relationship.
1. Be in Touch on Daily Basis
Communication is crucial to bring you closer to your partner. Even when you are miles apart, make sure you call each other as often as possible. Exchange emails on a daily basis; write letters describing how you feel each day without them. Expressing feelings through emails and over the phone will help your relationship to grow and become more stable with your long-distance partners. Remember, expressing your inner feelings to your partner shows your commitment and care. Be it a video call, voice call, or voice note, go for it; all you need is to stay in touch with your partner. Always take out time to have in-depth conversations where you can hear and see each other. Make a routine, try to talk every morning and night, and fix some time at the weekend for long video calls. Doing all these will make the bonding more intimate and sealed.
2. Pick Up the Phone
Always try to pick up the phone; not picking up can create misunderstandings. Sometimes you are in a meeting or with some clients or team and just unable to pick up the call. But as soon as you get some free time, even for a minute, do call your partner to know why you missed picking up the phone. It’s not that you are reporting to them; it’s just to show your significant other how much they matter to you because staying connected in a long-distance relationship is a must.
3. Discuss Everything
Be honest with your partner and have a healthy and detailed conversation on every ifs and but. Never hide your emotions, assuming they might feel odd or hurt. Do let each other know the level of commitment and seriousness towards the relationship and what could affect you both while you are living apart. Simply don’t let misunderstandings rule between you; sometimes, one partner is quite serious about taking the next steps while the other just wants to take it slowly. So it’s better to express your feelings and speak instead of being quiet and expecting things to go smoothly without any bumps. Trust me; relationships are fragile and need to be addressed openly to survive.
4. Never Assume
In a long-distance relationship, assumptions have their own role, and most of the time, negative thoughts keep rolling in your head; here, you need to be slow to judge. What will be your first reaction if your significant other skips the chat routine, fails to return your call, or forgets to look at your DMs? Obviously, you might think that either your partner is cheating or doesn’t want to be with you anymore, and likewise, all the negative emotions. And here you’re mistaken; when you both are distance apart, your schedule, and work-life balance are entirely different. Therefore, you can’t form opinions based on a few missed calls, messages, or video chats. To avoid assuming you have to trust your partner if such a thing happens, you better confront them openly and ask what they want.
5. Don’t be Jealous
In any relationship, be it friendship, siblings or even family, trust is the foundation stone, and the same applies here too. So trusting, trustworthy and kick out jealousy. Jealousy and envy can easily contaminate what you both have for each other. Seek ways to control these negative emotions, and allow the trust to be your cupid. But sometimes, some things trigger your jealousy; during such times, it’s better to talk about your concerns when you are in the right spot to ask and discuss.
6. No Suspicion
Always be transparent and fair in a relationship. The suspicious nature of any one or both will ruin your long-distance relationship. If you keep thinking about what your partner is doing, with whom he is talking and giggling, you will soon meet with anxiety and depression. To survive your relationship with your long-distance partner, you must learn to trust your partner wholeheartedly. Long distance relationship creates a perfect balance of independence and dependence in your life. This type of relationship is good and can be seen more in couples who are more career-oriented.
7. Surprise Gifts
The one powerful weapon which can turn anyone on is a gift. Gifts don’t mean that they have to be costly or big; they can be as simple as a greeting card or something of utility, all that matters is to communicate your feelings. Try sending surprise gifts that carry your feelings for your partner. You can surprise your partner by sending gifts or flowers or sometimes order lunch or dinner apart from your regular correspondence. The sweetness of your relationship will double with these unexpected gifts.
8. Keep Yourself Busy
Try to keep yourself busy with your work. This way, you will have less time to think, and your days will end quickly without regrets or expectations. But do let your partner know why you are keeping yourself busy. Indulge in activities that give you inner satisfaction, join a yoga or aerobic class or simply go for karaoke from time to time to keep yourself energized.
9. Meet in Person Regularly
Meeting in person is important, so try to meet as much as possible. But depending on the distance, it can be challenging, but besides everything, your relationship is equally important. It is better to set some goals and fix a time to see each other at least once in 2-3 months or quarterly, or if you are a continent apart, make it six-monthly or yearly. Sometimes you can visit their place and next time they can come to yours. Besides these planned visits, also be prepared for emergency visits.
10. Share One Goal
If any point in time, you both find that you are soulmates and want to live together in the future, start planning it. Surviving a long distance is scary when you want to share one roof, and here the much better option would be to try to ensure that you both will start to work on making the long distance a temporary one. And how can you make it temporary? Well, it just needs you both to talk about your future goals and to come on the same plane where you both begin to share the same dream, same vision, and same future; you both must work hard towards reaching that goal as soon as possible.
A long-distance relationship cannot survive without longing. For some people, distance in a relationship makes hearts grow fonder of each other, whereas, for some, it may wreck their bond. No doubt, there are many more challenges in surviving a long-distance relationship than those living together. Still, relationships are never easy for anyone because they need trust, commitment, loyalty, respect, and longing for each other. Things get more complicated in long-distance relationships, but if your love is true and you are working hard to make things work, trust me, it will work. Just keep your romance alive; try sexting to ignite intimate feelings, and never cheat your partner. Besides these, have some faith and keep talking on a daily basis, and everything will fall back into its place as you want.
Also Read: Long-distance relationships have become the norm in this millennium. Indeed, it is heart reckoning to know when one of the partners goes away for any reason.
