Love and Affection: The Magic Spark in Long-Term Relationships

We all know there’s plenty of love and affection in a new relationship, but why do we forget all about its importance when we’re in a long-term relationship?

We all love the honeymoon phase of a relationship. We’re full of passion and love and affection toward our new partner. We just can’t seem to get enough of them. This lasts for a few months, but it does eventually dissipate. You kind of forget about it after a while.

You just get so caught up in your routine with your partner you forget about giving them love and affection. You settle into your normal life where the sex is scarce and the affection only comes after watching romantic comedies for a couple of days.

Making the relationship last

Expecting that your relationship lasts forever without ever putting in the effort is faulty thinking. To make a relationship last through all the hardships, be willing to show your love and affection even at the least expected times.

Long-term relationships aren’t a walk in the park. Just ask any couple that’s been together for more than 10 years. They all tell you there were times when they wanted to kill their significant other! But they made it work because of two very simple, yet overlooked, things: love and affection. [Read: How to have a long term relationship that really lasts]

The importance of love and affection in a long-term relationship

Although those two things are important for any relationship, they’re even more important to have if you’ve been together for a long time. Or you want to be together forever. Making a relationship last has more to do with how you act than how your partner acts.

If you understand the importance of love and affection in a functioning relationship, you have hope of a happy and healthy long-term relationship. This is why love and affection stay vital in a successful relationship.

#1 Your partner loses confidence without them. How do you think your significant other would feel if you stopped showing love and affection toward them? If you just stop showing you care for them, they’re going to feel like they’re not good enough.

This causes them to lose confidence in themselves. It just puts them in a bad mindset going forward. Love and affection makes them feel good about themselves and ensures you’re still attracted to them no matter what. [Read: Different ways to say I love you without saying a word]

#2 They might start to think you’re getting bored. If you just stop showing your love and affection, your partner thinks you no longer like them or are bored with them. Now, this might not always be the case, but that’s how it feels for them.

If you still love and care for them but don’t show it, how are they supposed to know you still do? Give them your love and show them affection every single day. Then there’s no question that you no longer care for them.

#3 You may forget just how much they mean to you. Have you ever had a really amazing hobby or toy when you were little or something that got you really excited and played with forever? Then after a while you stopped and lost interest until that one day came along and you found it and did it again or played with it again. You just couldn’t believe you’d ever put it away.

Well, that’s how love is. If you stop showing your love and affection, you can forget about how much those feelings mean to you. You might endanger your relationship. Showing your love and affection keeps your own love for them alive. [Read: How to fix a broken relationship: 15 tips to make it last]

#4 You’ll start to lose that important bond. Bonding has to happen in a relationship. Affection is a great way to bond and strengthen that connection with your partner.

If you stop showing your affection for them, you’ll grow more and more distant. This puts a lot of relationships at risk of breaking. You need to bond to keep your love alive.

#5 You must show them how much you care. Love and affection needs to be given priority in a long-term relationship. It is necessary to show your partner you still care for them. It’s not a guaranteed fact that you do.

You have to give them your love and show them affection because that’s how you show that you care for them. If you don’t show that you care, they won’t think that you do. [Read: 11 sweet and intimate ways to show them you care]

#6 Happiness remains in your relationship if you show love and affection. What’s a common reason many relationships fail? It’s because happiness slips out of the relationship. It becomes replaced by frustration and anger. If you show your partner how much you love them by giving them affection, they won’t have a reason to be unhappy.

Keeping happiness in your relationship is what makes two years turn into five. And five years turn into 20. The key to a long-term relationship is keeping the happiness alive through love and affection. [Read: 10 couple goals we actually need in our relationships]

#7 Without love, you lose their affection. If you don’t show your partner that YOU love them, they won’t give you their affection. Why should they be sweet, kind, and caring toward someone that doesn’t even love them?

If you lose your significant other’s affection, your relationship is going to be very difficult to maintain. You’ll be frustrated that you’re not getting affection. They’ll be upset they’re not feeling your love.

#8 Without affection, you lose their love. At the same time, if you don’t give them affection, their love for you dwindles. It’s very hard to maintain loving someone when you’re not getting any affection from them in any form.

Giving your affection to your lover is vital in a long-term relationship. You have to be sweet, caring, and loving toward them or they’ll start to lose their love for you. Even little simple things every day make a difference. [Read: 16 ways to show your appreciation for someone you love]

#9 It maintains the honeymoon phase. Sure, it definitely slows down the honeymoon phase. I mean, you’re not always going to want to rip off your partner’s clothes forever, but having love and affection makes this happen occasionally as opposed to not at all.

If you show your love and affection, you’ll see how much it brings you back to the time when you first started dating and that passion was alive and well. It brings little moments of that same passion into your relationship after a long time and that’s what helps maintain a happy relationship. [Read: How to make a relationship last: 19 love commandments]

#10 No relationship lasts without them. This is just the truth. You add and subtract many other things from a relationship and still manage to make it work. But if you never show your partner how much you love them by giving them affection, it never works.

Doing that and showing them you still care—after all those months, years, etc.—is what they need from you to feel happy and fulfilled in their relationship. Never forget to give them love and affection.

[Read: Where there is love there is life: Why love makes us better]

There are a lot of things that go into the success or failure of a relationship. If you look at many long-term relationships, they’re still together because of the two most important things: love and affection.

The post Love and Affection: The Magic Spark in Long-Term Relationships is the original content of LovePanky - Your Guide to Better Love and Relationships.