How to stay emotionally connected in a long distance relationship? Well, there’s no exact answer or definition. Let’s be real: no one likes the fact that you’re not able to see your loved one for a long time.
Long distance relationships are full of challenges but if both of you put enough effort into it, it’s possible that your relationship will be stronger than those where partners live in the same city or even together.
If you want to learn and find out how to stay emotionally connected in a long distance relationship, here are some of the best long distance relationship tips.
How to stay emotionally connected in a long distance relationship – What kills long distance relationships?
When being in a long distance relationship, emotional connection helps you be connected to your partner. If you want to be a part of a long distance couple, you need to put in the effort.
However, an emotional connection isn’t enough to have a successful relationship. Normally, every relationship has its ups and downs.
When you have problems, try to find a solution. Don’t think of the option of a break-up. The break up option should be the last option to think of. If you love your ldr partner, try to find every possible solution.
Comparing your relationship with others
When you compare your relationship with others, it can make your partner feel awful if they think they’re not giving you what you want. Don’t do that to your partner.
Be thankful for your relationship and the time your partner is giving you. Remember that you’re not the only one who’s in a long distance relationship, your partner’s in the same situation.
Sometimes, both of you will have some insecurities and ask yourself “can I manage to be in a ldr?”. However, as time passes, you’ll learn how to make a long distance relationship work on your own.
There isn’t a book of rules. Make your own rules. It’s your relationship. No matter what long distance relationship tips say, at the end of the day, it’s your life and you plan it as you want.
Not communicating with your partner
When you have a conflict with your partner, listen to them. Don’t be quiet or not talk at all. If you’re doing this, you’re being disrespectful to your significant other.
You’ll never fix your problems if you don’t communicate. Talk about everything, positive and negative feelings.
If you don’t know how to handle a lack of communication, ask for help. Ask someone who has experience with this kind of problem, a relationship expert, or a psychotherapist.
Relationship experts and psychotherapists are people who will surely give you the best relationship advice.
Fighting with each other
Everyone fights sometimes. Every fight is the outcome of the communication gap between a couple.
When two grown-ups don’t talk about their problems, especially in long distance relationships, that distance becomes even larger.
You should always think about the reasons why the fight started in the first place and find out the way to stay close to your partner.
Cheating
Cheating is wrong. No matter which phrase you use, cheating is cheating. Remember, cheating isn’t okay.
Young people often think it’s cool to cheat on your partner to be part of a ‘cool group’ of people. However, you won’t achieve anything except kill your relationship.
Cheating is cheating, and it will kill your relationship no matter if you do it often or once.
If you miss physical intimacy with someone, think about how much you love your partner and how awesome you’ll feel when the two of you reunite.
It’s easy to connect with someone physically, but emotional intimacy is something precious. Don’t let your current urge mess up your emotional intimacy with your current partner.
Not trusting each other
People who have trust issues aren’t the ones who are capable of being in a long distance relationship.
No matter what type of relationship you prefer, trust is the most important thing. Lack of trust and lack of communication are usually the reasons for the death of many relationships.
Practice a daily check-in with your loved one. Organize a virtual date daily and check in with your significant other about how they feel. Make it a daily life obligation. It’s a great way to build trust between the two of you.
Being busy with everything except your relationship
One of the most common reasons why long distance relationship partners split up is because one or both partners are busy with everything that’s going on in their lives except their relationship.
Of course, everybody has their obligations and things to do, but you also have to invest in your relationship if you want to make each other feel special.
If both of you have busy schedules, there’s a giant chance you’ll kill your long distance relationship with your behavior.
Letting your relationship become boring
When being in a long distance relationship, there are many challenges that you have to deal with.
The first one is dealing with distance and accepting the fact that technology is the only way to communicate most of the time.
In the beginning, every couple wants to communicate all the time and to meet up with their partner as much as possible.
Later, there’s a chance you’ll run out of topics to talk about with your partner and it’ll be hard to keep up the good communication.
When you feel you’re fed up with text messages, think of other creative ways to communicate. Facetime, voice messages, video calls, phone calls, skype, video chat, or playing online games together are only some of the ways to communicate. There are many social media platforms so you have a lot of other ways to communicate.
Also, being in a ldr is hard because there’s a lack of physical intimacy and physical touch. It’s not the same when you can hug and kiss your loved one every day versus when you do it once a month.
If you want to stay emotionally connected, you need to find a way to manage the physical distance.
Sometimes, when you’re connected with someone on a high level of emotions, distance means nothing. It’ll only be sweeter to wait for the reunion with your loved one.
Not spending enough time with your partner
If you’re not willing to put any effort into your relationship, don’t be in a relationship. Don’t bother yourself or your partner.
A relationship is something that should be full of commitment, and if there’s a lack of commitment, you can’t expect it to live on.
On the other hand, don’t put too much pressure on your partner. Don’t expect them to spend every minute and second in their life with you and don’t expect a date night every night.
You two also need to spend time with your family and friends.
How to stay emotionally connected in a long distance relationship – How can I stop being sad in a long distance relationship?
Don’t hide your emotions
When you think about ldr, the first thing many people think about is an emotional rollercoaster. Don’t be shy and hide your feelings. It’s natural that you don’t feel great all the time.
No matter how, just let the words and emotions all out. If you keep bottling your feelings up, relationship problems will continue to grow.
If something bothers you, tell your significant other and work together on that problem. Open communication is key to a successful relationship.
Don’t be afraid to open up and tell someone what lies inside of you.
Have your obligations outside of the relationship
Being in a ldr relationship has its advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is that you can have enough time for yourself.
You can focus on your hobbies and everything that makes you happy because you don’t have to spend 24 hours with your partner.
Think about activities you used to do when you were single. Start doing these again. Enjoy the time you’re spending far away from each other. Do things that make you happy and that’ll help you build your confidence.
When the two of you are doing well personally, it’ll help you to have a healthy relationship with your long distance partner.
Focus on other people in your life
If you’re thinking about how to make time move faster while waiting for a date with your ldr partner, spend time with people you love.
Before meeting your loved one, you used to spend all the time with your family and friends.
Now, when you’re in a long distance relationship, use that time when you’re separated from your partner to spend some quality time with other people you love.
Organize virtual dates
Besides spending time with people you love, something that’ll make you happy is organizing a virtual date with your ldr partner.
If you’re often sad because the two of you don’t have a chance to go on dates more often, organize a virtual date. Make the same dinner, turn on Netflix, and watch the same series or movie ‘together’.
When it comes to holidays, Valentine’s day for example, try to still be there for them. If you don’t have a chance to spend it together, make your loved one a gift and send it.
You can make a care package with your partner’s favorite sweets and little things or a playlist with your favorite songs.
Don’t imagine things, think realistic
All of us have some giant expectations in a relationship, especially at the beginning. It’s good to fantasize because it’s a great feeling to be in love with someone, but on the other hand, you need to be realistic.
You can’t expect your loved one to text you all day long, or facetime you every single day. You won’t always have enough time to talk with your significant other.
Also, if you think it’s okay to be in a long distance relationship for some time, but later you want it to change, you have to discuss it with your partner.
If the two of you don’t have the same goals and expectations, it’s better to be realistic and accept the fact that your relationship doesn’t have a future.
Talk about your feelings
This sounds cliche, but it’s easy and more efficient than you think. Just open your mouth and talk. If you can’t talk with your partner at any time (maybe because of the time zones), you must have friends who will listen to you at any moment.
It can be hard to open up and talk about your depression and show your vulnerabilities to someone because you’re afraid they will judge you and tell you that you’re overreacting and exaggerating.
However, real friends won’t tell you that, so don’t be afraid to talk. You’re not alone. There’s always someone who is close enough so tell them how you feel.
How to stay emotionally connected in a long distance relationship – How do you make a long distance relationship work?
A long distance relationship is full of challenges. It’s easy to come to a phase of a relationship when you don’t communicate enough and as time passes, you become more like acquaintances than lovers.
Due to this, you need to constantly work on your relationship and don’t let it become a friendship instead of a romantic relationship.
Social media
You’re lucky to live in an era of social media platforms, so you don’t have to worry about finding a way to communicate with your lover.
If you become bored in a moment, change to a different platform. Maybe instead of sending text messages, start using Snapchat and text via pictures.
In fact, discuss with your partner which is the best way to communicate for both of you and choose to use the platform that fits the best. Talk often about what you like about each other and your relationship.
When spending so much time away from each other, there’s a huge chance that you will feel insecurities or jealousy sometimes.
If you want it to happen as rarely as possible, talk often with your partner about things you love about each other and your relationship in general.
If you regularly talk about being grateful for each other, your relationship will always be fresh and stable.
Hang out together even when you’re not together
When you’re in a long distance relationship, you’re prevented from going on dates as much as you would go if you weren’t in a ldr.
So, instead of waiting for a month or a year to go on a real date, you can organize a virtual date. It doesn’t have to be a date, it can be a normal night ‘spent together’.
However, how can you spend a night with your long distance relationship partner? Well, make a deal. Download the same playlist of songs and listen to it at the same time.
Discuss which one’s your favorite, or which one describes your relationship.
The second idea is to sync to do the same things at the same time. You can cook, clean, go jogging, go to the gym, ride a bike, go shopping, or do anything you can think of.
The third idea is a movie night. If you’re not able to go to the cinema together, you can always choose a movie online, make some popcorn, and watch it at the same time and comment on it. Of course, lack of physical intimacy will be present, but be patient and don’t let the physical distance ruin your relationship.
Don’t forget the reason why you’re apart
There are good days, but there will also always be hard days. Hard days in long distance relationships are common because it’s easy to ask yourself “can I continue to live like this?”.
Probably, you will think of doing something impulsive, so you can go and be with your loved one. However, you need to be strong.
Remind yourself why you’re apart from each other in the first place. Maybe it’s because of family, a job, or something else that’s important to you.
If you deal with all of the barriers through the years, your long distance relationship will be even stronger later when the two of you start to live together.
How to stay emotionally connected in a long distance relationship – Distance means nothing if you love someone!
Every relationship has its ups and downs, no matter if it’s a long distance relationship or a normal one.
Every couple can come to a phase when both of them are asking themselves how to stay emotionally connected in a long distance relationship.
The most important thing is communication. Talk with your partner. Talk about your feelings, fears, values, wishes, big picture dreams, hopes, or about each other.
If there are enough emotions and love between the two of you, you will get over every crisis your relationship gets in. Good luck!