Healthy Relationship Habits

 

Psychologists’ quick tips on cultivating a loving relationship!

1. After the honeymoon phase, make a concerted effort to treat the relationship as a priority. It is not the last thing to tend to after work, kids, school, friends, TV and the dog.
2. Have realistic expectations that our partner cannot and will not meet our every single need. No one can.
3. Take time to connect and check-in each day, and make date nights a recurring thing.
4. Learn to show appreciation and to apologize.
5. Don’t let sex go.
6. Talk about how the relationship is doing.
7. In a thriving relationship, the ratio of positive interactions to negative ones should be, at the very least, 5 to 1. In other words, for every negative interaction (criticism, argument), it should be buffered by 5 positive ones (appreciation, connection). It’s called the “golden ratio.”
8. Take time apart.
9. Have healthy boundaries.