As Valentine's Day Approaches, some tips on strengthening relationships

With Valentine’s Day soon approaching, February has become the official month of love. So what are the basic building blocks of all good relationships? These include affection, emotional expression, and love.

Affection

I believe affection is very important in relationships and could be considered one of the most important building blocks for bonding and intimacy in relationships.  Each partner needs to experience the verbal and physical expressions of love, warmth and caring that each feels for the other. And physical affection helps establish feelings of intimacy. Touch is a powerful form of non-verbal communication that feeds emotional intimacy and demonstrates affection so learning how to give back rubs and massages would effectively fall into this area as does any actions of gratitude to make your spouse/partner feel cared for and appreciated. 

Emotional Expression

Emotional expression is something that I feel comes from a heart-centred source. Our emotions tell us how we feel and this will determine how we will behave and think about the people in our life that we are in a relationship with. It can be conscious or unconscious, verbal or non-verbal. Experts suggest there are over 7000 facial expressions a human being can demonstrate, but there are only six basic emotions that I believe everyone across cultures and all over the world use to communicate how we feel. These are happiness, sadness, anger, fear, disgust and surprise. Expressing emotions is healthy and one’s culture will often dictate how emotions are expressed. Emotional expression also varies among individuals and families.  A good relationship is based on sharing our experiences and on how we are sincerely feeling.  It is also an expression of honesty and trust – to express one’s true emotions is to build intimacy and trust in a relationship.

Love

Love is a natural extension that I believe comes from affection. It is an emotion one feels when you are committed and care for another. There are many different types of love and stages of love. And I believe when you are in a long-term intimate relationship you may experience all or one of the stages of love based on your needs, values and beliefs.  For example, someone may believe that romantic love is the love they value with passion and intimacy whereas another may value companionship love with intimacy and commitment. 

Live Happy and practice acts of kindness and compassion with yourself and others. And Happy Valentine`s Day!