One of the best pieces of advice about enjoying a long-lasting and contended relationship is never to take each other for granted. Much as it might be tempting to settle into familiarity once you’ve connected with someone, it always pays to think about ways to ensure your connections always remains in a healthy state.

You don’t want your partnership to simply tick along at a steady pace. Every day should bring new surprises, and if there are challenges, you need to be able to trust each other to collaborate when surmounting these. So when it comes to maintaining a healthy relationship, here’s a selection of tips.

Tips For A Healthy Dating Relationship

Try and temper your initial feelings

Say you’ve just met someone on your favorite dating site and you’ve really hit it off. While it’s natural to be caught up in the excitement of getting to know a new flame, it would be advisable to try and take a step back, rather than rushing into meeting up all the time and expecting them to reciprocate this enthusiasm.

Build your relationship on honesty and trust

Long before you begin to entertain feelings you might be seriously falling for this person, the building blocks of your relationship you should be focusing on honesty and trust, long before you consider the possibilities of having fallen in love. You must be open with one another at all times. If you have anything you feel you should confess, do so and accept the consequences, rather than try to keep anything period.

Don’t reveal too much of yourself

It might seem counterintuitive to the previous point, but you don’t have to wear your heart on your sleeve all the time. A balancing act is required between honesty and holding certain things back. Details of a messy divorce you went through or a stint in rehab, can remain private until the time is right to broach the subject.

Avoid being overly possessive

Space is such a valuable word when it comes to relationships. We all love the comfort of being close and intimate with someone. But no one wants to feel as if they’re being smothered with undue attention. It’s essential you appreciate when each of you needs some alone time.

Always maintain separate interests and bonds 

It is so important not to become so fixated on one another you allow your wider friendship circle to fall by the wayside. If you have particular hobbies or sporting interests which you enjoy, but your partner is not remotely interested in, carry on doing these. And never display any signs of jealousy if your partner wishes to go off and see their own friends without you. Always remember, absence makes the heart grow fonder

Meet each other half-way: when giving

Everyone loves little gifts. That unexpected bunch of flowers. The surprise tickets you spring on your for their favorite band. These gestures need to be reciprocated, however. It is not healthy if one partner is doing all the work.

Meet each other half-way: when arguing

Obviously, there will be occasions when you will have strong disagreements Arguments are a facet of life. But these must be resolved by compromise and understanding, otherwise the ill feelings they provoke will continue to fester.

Never discuss the ‘M’ word until the time is right

It might seem like the logical expression of how well your relationship seems to be going to mention words like marriage. Or children. If either party has not quite reached that stage yet, this imbalance can actually destabilise what you have. You’ll instinctively know when the time is right to broach these subjects together, some way down the line.