5 Daily Actions to Keep Love Alive in Your Relationship

Many of us struggle with keeping the love alive in our relationships. We have a hard time keeping the fire stoked and burning when after time we've become too familiar, too habitual, and too emotionally detached to create romance and harmony with the person with whom we have sworn our undying love. People in good, loving relationships make it look so easy. They're always happy, they laugh together, talked for hours on end, and truly enjoy and seek out each other's company. The truth is that they work on their relationships everyday and never, never, never take one another for granted.

I have a very good friend who is extremely happy in his marriage. When people ask him how he does it, his standard reply is, "It easy. I never stop dating my wife." Simply, yes, and yet many people forget how wonderful it felt to be so in love during the early days of their relationships. Sending flowers, leaving love notes and post-its, writing poetry, having candle-lit dinners. The list goes on and on but the frequency with which people in relationships continue to do these things dwindles and eventually stops altogether.

Never stop dating your partner is one good maxim to live by in your relationship. I have some other tips as well and I call them the Daily Five for Being In Love Forever.

Say "I love you," Everyday

This is vital. We all need to know we are loved and while there are many ways to show it, our brain needs to hear it. Tell your partner, look her in the eye, and tell her, "I love you." Hold his hand and say "I love you." This should be something that is full of intention and sincerity. It doesn't feel the same when you say it as you are rushing out the door or mumbling it during a TV show without ever taking your eyes off the screen. Make it count and make sure your partner hears you. It does not count and will not be felt if it isn't heard.

Make Love Everyday

Some of you are laughing because you know your partner will never make love everyday. However, there are a thousand ways to make love, and only some of them are sexual. Touch her as you walk past. Give him a long, close hug just because you felt like it. Make her breakfast. Do a couple loads of laundry, not because they need to be done but because it's your partner's turn and you know she' s had a long, hard day. Give back massage, or a foot rub. There are a thousand ways to make love. Be creative.

Make Your Kisses Meaningful

The kiss on the cheek is fine as you are going out the door to work if that is one of one hundred other kisses. If it is the only one for the day, make it count. Go back and plant one on his lips that shows how much you love him, and that you can't wait to kiss him again and again. Of course, kissing can be very sexual (another way to make love) but it can also convey the depth of your love for your partner. Don't assume that your partner will know you want to kiss and be kissed. Make each kiss memorable and meaningful, full of passion and even more full of love.

Laugh Together

This is one of the most important parts of a loving relationship. If you are not laughing together-never at one another, then this is a place where you both need to look to revitalize and re-energize your relationship. In truth, if you are not laughing with each other every day, then you have forgotten how to play, and playing and being playful is what keeps you both from taking your lives together so seriously. Life is hard enough. Laughing together makes it all just a little more bearable.

Listen with an Loving, Open Heart

Listening with an open heart takes practice. You have to be willing and able to suspend your own personal agenda, or your need to fix your partner because you truly know what he or she needs. Most of the time the response partners give is that they don't need to be fixed, they just need to be listened to. Period. It's not your job to fix and it definitely is not your job to judge your partner. Just shut up and listen. Some of us are not used to that, but the important thing and the way to honor your partner is to listen with a loving, open heart.

There are thousands of ways to make your relationship better, or more loving, but I guarantee that if you do these five things on a daily basis, your relationship will change in positive ways you would have never thought possible. Oh, yes and remember-"Never Stop Dating Your Partner!"

By John Nepper

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John Nepper, the maximizer of human potential, work with people to find clarity, passion and purpose, and the first rate life they crave and deserve. His mission is to create joyful world by maximizing the best of human potential. Check out his website, The Ultimate Self at jnepper.com