12 Little Known Habits of People In Healthy Relationships

Fulfilling relationships are healthy relationships, and vice versa. There’s a depth of meaning, understanding, and appreciation that these kinds of relationships bring. True enough, there’s also nothing worse than a broken relationship with someone so dear to you.

A relationships can make the world go ‘round, and as exciting as it is, it can go for better or for worse. The exciting thing about relationships is that you can actually increase your chances of making and keeping it healthy. You have a chance of turning a simple romantic relationship into a relationship filled with excitement, fulfillment, meaning, joy, and love. These are the perfect yet basic ingredients that govern most human relationships and these basics are what I want to go over in how they are able to keep relationships healthy.

Healthy relationships differ from one couple to another, but they are still comprised of the same ingredients – faith, loyalty, love, joy, meaning, etc.. Unfortunately, healthy relationships do not happen overnight and they are constantly a work in progress.

If you desire a healthy relationship with your romantic partner, these habits will make it happen.

People in healthy relationships are in love

Love is defined differently by a lot of people and most of them define love as a feeling but I would have to disagree with that statement. The concept of LIKE or LIKING SOMEBODY is really about feelings because when you say you like someone, you are talking about how you feel. When you say you love someone, you are not just talking about what you’re feeling for them. Love is deeper than a feeling and love is a commitment we make to people to always treat them right and honourably.

For example, take a look at our family. We love our father, mother, siblings, cousins, grandparents, uncles, aunts, and even our dogs. We love them unconditionally because there’s no other reason why you shouldn’t love them. Take that kind of love and share it with another person.

Healthy relationships are founded on love, whether it’s a romantic relationship, or a relationship between you and your family and friends. It is this commitment to love that makes healthy relationships stand out from the rest and it is this commitment that defines a relationship.

People in healthy relationships have good communication

When two people are open and honest to one another, they share a strong, vital goal in maintaining a healthy relationship: communication. Through good communication, one person is able to feel one thing and another person can find out and feel it too. It’s kind of amazing, when you think about it. Communication allows us to connect with our partners, and it is a two-way street. When you talk, the other one listens, and vice versa.

The central tenet in any relationship is to communicate because much like love, communication serves as a foundation that builds a relationship and makes it stronger.

Here’s the exciting part: if two people in a relationship communicate, they can get by anything. They can work through any problem and achieve any goal they set as long as they communicate.

People in healthy relationships are friendly

The friendlier you are, the more you are going to have people who want to pursue longer-lasting and mutually beneficial relationships with you. Relationships work better when we are friendly with others because friends help cushion the bumpy rides we experience in our romantic relationships.

People in healthy relationships are patient

There are always ample opportunities that allow us to practice the art of being patient and this is a very important habit because sometimes, we know that people will fail us and we will fail other people. While we need to be patient towards others, we also need their patience.

Relationships break down because people give up and lose patience. I am talking about friendships, work relationships, and even marriages. I’ve uncovered recent research that shows that married couples that make it through a major crisis are stronger than their past selves, so patience wins out.

People in healthy relationships are loyal to one another

When we talked about commitment to love, it builds on another virtue – loyalty. Sadly, I see loyalty as a missing element in most relationships today. People forget what it’s like to be loyal because of consumer mentality. People are no longer loyal to a product and companies are not so loyal to their clients and patrons.

This mentality spilled over into our relationships and we see people switch partners like they just switched brands of dishwashing detergent.

When we are loyal, we commit. When we commit, we are loyal. We need to commit to let the relationship move forward and loyalty brings the relationship to a much deeper level. It gives us a very secure feeling that someone is going to stick by you through tough times and they are going to share the same feeling because you are going to do the same for them.

A healthy relationship between two people shares a common purpose 

What do I mean by common purpose?

When you share a common goal, magic occurs. It is no longer about one person’s wishes or desires. Your shared vision is bigger than each of you and pulls you forward on a common journey, allowing you to grow together.
This can be renovating the home. It can be creating a vegetable patch, finding out the healthiest lifestyle choices or bringing up happy children. You don’t get irritated by minor differences, because you have a bigger vision that connects you even beyond romance.

A healthy relationship is fun

I think that a good and healthy relationship is fun, and that people who know how to have fun are those who know how to keep the relationship healthy.

Having fun together doesn’t necessarily mean having boisterous fun, like going clubbing, but simply having fun that’s appropriate for the relationship. Fun brings enjoyment to the relationship and this is what’s important. You don’t want two people burned out. The list of fun things to do in a relationship is endless.

Couples in healthy relationships prefer quality time, not quantity

People in healthy relationships know that it’s about quality, not quantity. It’s not about the amount of time you spend together, but the quality of it. If your boyfriend sees you only once a week due to his busy schedule, but makes that one-time meeting very special, then that’s all there is to it.

Quality time allows you to engage in a deep connection because there’s nothing better than to zone out together and get distracted from everyday stress. Quality time could equate to a lovely dinner at a fast-food restaurant after a tiring day at work, or binge-watching the entire season of your favourite TV show at home.

Couples in healthy relationships appreciate time apart

Just as much as two people in healthy relationships love to spend time together, they also know the value of spending time apart. It’s important in any relationship to maintain independence because you still need to have your own identity in that relationship. I have seen relationships fall apart because people were just too clingy to their partners.

Being too co-dependent can be unhealthy for a relationship. Healthy boundaries and some autonomy between two people can lead to long-lasting relationship.

Couples in healthy relationships know how to appreciate one another 

When two people are in a healthy relationship, they openly communicate with one another. Apart from criticism, appreciation is also being conveyed. However, we do sometimes forget to appreciate the people around us, including our very own partner in life.

Appreciation does wonders for any relationship and a simple gesture through words, gifts, cards, or acts of kindness can go a long way.

There are no comparisons between two people in healthy relationships

We like to compare our lives to those of others – jobs, houses, lifestyle, you name it. With the help of social media, we have this tendency to compare our relationships to what we see. For example, we see a picture of two couples satisfying their wanderlust yet here we are stuck in a desk for 9 hours.

A healthy relationship does not need to compare because it itself stands out from the rest. Allow me to explain.

A healthy relationship needs no comparison because there’s a feeling of satisfaction between the people involved. Simply put, both of them can look at the same photo of a travelling couple and still say “Nah, I’m good where I am now”.

Couples in healthy relationships make sex exciting

Let’s talk about sex.

Let’s talk about how sex is different from making love. It’s simple really. The more you have it, the more you want it. The less you have, the less you want it. Unfortunately, the less you have sex, the less you’ll feel connected to your partner.

Sex plays a crucial role in a healthy relationship because it’s another way of being intimate towards your partner. Keeping your sex life alive and interesting can do wonders for your relationship, and you don’t even need to purchase those expensive adult recreational gadgets. One way of doing this is to do it outside your own bedroom. You can book a romantic weekend at your local B&B or you can go to a fancy hotel once a month just to keep things romantic and intimate.

In closing, I would like to say that these habits are crucial to the success and survival of a relationship because of the underlying components, virtues, and tenet like love, patience, loyalty, teamwork, appreciation, intimacy, congeniality, and excitement.

These habits don’t appear overnight. They need to be worked on consistently and they need to be practiced all the time.