How You Can Make Your Long Distace Relationship Work

Everyone knows that maintaining a long distance relationship demands hard work and dedication from both Man and Woman. When a couple lives very far away, keeping a romance going becomes very difficult. According to the Center for the Study of Long-Distance Relationships (who knew such a thing existed?!), more than two million couples in the United States are in LDRs—including three percent of the country’s married couples. While long-distance relationships can be challenging, here are five tips that will ensure yours is as healthy and successful as possible.

1. The biggest benefit of being in an LDR is that it forces you to communicate. You may never again in the course of your relationship have this much focused time and energy to spend communicating with your partner. Make the most of it. If you get to know them deeply and well, that will pay off big-time in the long run.

2. When you’re trying to figure out how to make a long distance relationship work, talk about how you talk. Discuss some of your communication basics as a couple–how you generally prefer to connect (phone, VoIP, text), what times, and for how long. This can help set realistic expectations and avoid some miscommunications, frustration, and anxiety.

3. When you’re in a long distance relationship it’s easier to hide your weaknesses and put your best foot forward. Unless you both value transparency and honesty more than making a good impression, you will have a much more difficult time figuring out whether you and your partner are a good fit for each other.

4. Communication is the bedrock of any relationship, but when you’re in an LDR, talking is often all you have. Learn to listen carefully to your partner and ask good questions – questions that make them think and help you understand them better.

5. Before the end of a visit, be sure you know when one of you will be visiting the other next. If you have a definite end to the distance already on the calendar, even if it’s just going to be a weekend together, the time apart will be easier to deal with. It’s also important to have a general sense for when the long-distance phase of your relationship will come to an end. An indefinite LDR is unsustainable for most couples, so having a plan for eventually moving to common ground is helpful.

6. There are moments of jealousy and insecurity in even the most secure relationships. However, every perceived slight or twinge of envy will be magnified in a long-distance relationship. The last things you want to do while you’re apart is, spend your time obsessively checking his Facebook page or fretting about what he’s doing if he doesn’t respond to your texts quickly enough. If you don’t trust your partner or know you have jealous tendencies, you might want to reconsider if an LDR is really right for you.