Relationships can be undeniably challenging and cause a toll on the emotional, psychological, mental, and physical being of the individual. In this day and age of machine existence1 with zero focus on personality2 and emotion.
Maintaining intimate relationships, be it in any form, are not an easy task. With the added factor of long distances, relationships3 become even more complicated. They require a lot of consistent effort, hard work, and dedication. However, they also come with their own set of perks.
1. Trust Grows Exponentially
Being far away from someone and still feeling close to them emotionally can help develop a sense of security in the relationship and create trust in insane amounts. You trust your significant other not to do things detrimental to the relationship, such as cheating4, lying, etc.
Trusting and believing your distant partner from even a far distance builds a positive character and climate in the relationship. This sense of trust helps prioritize the other individual and his needs and helps sustain the relationship in the long term.
The increased importance of trust fosters a sense of hope for both partners. That gives them a reason to work hard for the relationship, even when things do not go as planned.
On the other hand, the absence of trust can create a lot of suspicions, doubt, misplaced sense of jealousy, and individual insecurity5 and loneliness6. The relationship feels more of a burden than a joy when this happens.
2. You Don’t Have to Be Presentable All the Time
Life is never easy. Working according to a fixed schedule often requires one to be prim, proper, well-dressed, and orderly. This can often create a mental and emotional strain on the person’s psyche. One loses the will to be free, authentic, and original. Long-distance relationships go a long way in making the process smoother.
You can have your off days when you don’t have to dress up for your boyfriend or girlfriend (Not saying that you ought to dress up when you meet them XD). Individuals can find time to be themselves and do whatever they please without thinking about someone else.
3. Independence
You start learning how to be independent because you are in two geographically distant places, and you begin to learn how to get things done by yourself. The absence of the other individual teaches one to depend on oneself and look within oneself for emotional and physical fulfillment.
Relationships are about collective and individual growth. Being away from each other helps one grow and mature. It also builds strong resilience and character. Both individuals must grow together in the relationship. As well as be mature enough to become free-thinking self-sufficient, and self-supporting individuals in your personal lives.
Although initially, this may seem romantic, as if “they are made for each other.” However, it can also have its downsides. Many couples who stay together do everything together, finish each other’s sentences, and become so synchronized in their personality and behavior that it becomes difficult to differentiate one from the other. You have little space to discover yourself, your identity, and who you are as an individual.
Being away from each other can feel suffocating and strenuous. Therefore long-term relationships require a lot of resilience and patience. As a result, this resilience gets manifested in various other aspects of life.
4. The Relationship is More Than Just Physical
Several relationships break off due to a lack of physical contact. Long-distance relationships can help strengthen the emotional bond as the person grows and matures into realizing that the relationship is more than just sex.
There is something or someone worth living for and something to look forward to. You both establish a mental, psychological, and intellectual connection from all the time you spend apart.
Partners find more time to talk about themselves and know each other personally and emotionally, not just physically. A higher level of communication and investment in the relationship and the will to know the other person help sustain the relationship for a more extended period.
5. You Unleash Your Inner Romantic Self
Handwritten cards hold a much greater significance than cards brought to the store. Starting from handwritten postcards and romantic letters to poems about your beloved, you’ve probably done it all.
You surprised yourself because you probably didn’t even know you had a romantic side to yourself. You learn to express how you feel about the other person much more raw and romantic and learn to open up emotionally to your significant other. It helps the other person feel more special and appreciated.
6. You Guys Fight, but Every Fight only Brings You Two Closer to Each Other
“Patience is a virtue.” Every relationship has been fought. Often, these fights build a relationship and act as its strong anchor holding it down. The same goes for long-distance relationships as well.
All the arguments you have are probably because you both yearn to spend more time with each other. You guys only become closer emotionally with every fight that comes your way. These fights are usually helpful and will teach you valuable life lessons and help value the other person. They teach one to be confident about expressing personal opinions and feelings and respecting the views and feelings of others as well.
7. Gifts and Surprises Mean a Lot More Now
When your beloved partner comes to your city or town to surprise you and make you happy, you can’t help but fall in love with them all over again. It means a ton to you. Every gift means a lot more to you than you’d ever expect, and you end up keeping it with you forever.
Even something as small as a card or eatable sent by mail can show how much you care about the other individual. It can help show that you value the other individual and that you are grateful for them, so much so that you thought of them during your busy schedule and decided to do something to bring a smile on their face, even if over a long distance.
Over time we often tend to take others for granted. Expressing love through giving a gift shows that you pay attention to the other person and care about them.
8. Even the Most Routine Things that You Do with Them Become Amazing
Going to the bank, grocery store, or mall for shopping feels fantastic when you do it with your beloved. It helps develop a sense of comfort, easiness, and freedom. It makes the other person feel involved and included in your life. It creates a memorable experience that creates a much more lasting and significant influence on both partners in the relationship.
9. Both of You Get Some “Me” Time
You get a lot of personal space, whether you like it or not, but you can make the most out of it and pamper yourself. It’s essential to “re-charging” oneself, renew and reconnect with oneself, and discover what you like.
Self-care is a crucial prerequisite for keeping a strong, healthy, and long-lasting relationship. Activities such as reading, cooking, baking, exercising, watching a movie, playing a sport can help individuals discover their authentic selves.
“Me” time also helps the individual refuel and cope better with the stress they face in various other aspects of life.
10. Fuels Your Desires
Your long-distance relationship stops your routine with your other half from becoming monotonous, and it becomes something that you long for, be it emotional, mental, or sexual desires. It allows space for individual growth discovery, and fulfillment. Because of less physical proximity with the other individual, the partner finds more time to spend on oneself.
The individual finds more time to focus on career goals, and personal hobbies and plan events independently without any help. The mutual support of the other person at such a time of personal fulfillment can instill a sense of confidence, support, and faith in the individual.
Partners can set bucket lists for themselves that they work to fulfill within a given period with the emotional support of the other individual. Such goals will help sustain and enrich the relationship as well.
The goal is to grow together and also grow alone.
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- Semenova, Lesia, Cynthia Rudin, and Ronald Parr. “On the existence of simpler machine learning models.” Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency. 2022. ↩︎
- Guilford, Joy P. “Factors and factors of personality.” Psychological Bulletin 82.5 (1975): 802. ↩︎
- Aylor, Brooks A. “Maintaining long-distance relationships.” Maintaining relationships through communication. Routledge, 2003. 127-139. ↩︎
- Houser, Daniel, Stefan Vetter, and Joachim Winter. “Fairness and cheating.” European Economic Review 56.8 (2012): 1645-1655. ↩︎
- Catalano, Ralph. “The health effects of economic insecurity.” American journal of public health 81.9 (1991): 1148-1152. ↩︎
- Reichmann, Frieda Fromm. “Loneliness.” Psychiatry 22.1 (1959): 1-15. ↩︎
Last Updated on by NamitaSoren
