CM - 10 Relationship Building Activities for Couples
The health of your relationship often reflects your physiological and psychological health. Having a healthy relationship does not mean you will never disagree or get frustrated with your spouse. Instead, it means you continually work to improve aspects of your relationship so that it grows and thrives.
If you are not working to improve your relationship, you may feel like you and your partner are growing apart. You may argue more, feel an increase in depression or anxiety, overeat to cope with your feelings, and struggle with physical problems that can be linked to stress and being unhappy. Too often, doctors diagnose people with a mental health disorder or physical disease without considering the health of a relationship as a contributing factor.
For many, improving relationships will also improve mental and physical health. You can start doing things now to improve your marriage. Relationship building as a couple offers many rewards, including living longer and aging better.
Below are ten relationship-building activities you can try with your partner.
Volunteer Together
Giving back, even in a small way, feels rewarding. Volunteering as a couple lets you both feel valued and working as a team, making a difference in your community. Volunteering helps you build meaningful memories. Plus, putting smiles on the faces of others makes you smile too.
Attend a Class Together
It’s never too late to learn a new hobby, and today, classes are being taught on just about every topic imaginable. Cooking, golfing, sewing, painting, and gardening are a few examples, but really, the sky is the limit. You can even learn about the sky or how to skydive—learning new skills teaches you how to work as a team, complementing one another's abilities.
Relax Together
Your days are filled with busy activities geared to benefit everyone else, from your boss to your family members. Neither you nor your spouse gets time to truly relax. You can change that by planning specific relaxation activities that you do together. Get massages, join a yoga class, or lock yourselves in the bathroom and soak in a bubble bath. You can switch up the activity each week, but the key is to finish the activity feeling more relaxed than you did before you started.
Go Off the Grid Together
Whether you choose camping or glamping, going off-grid for a couple of days can strengthen your relationship. The key is to choose a location where you cannot be interrupted by family or strangers, with no wi-fi and a lot of fun adventures to experience in the area. You will relearn how to work together, take care of each other, and have fun.
Complete a Couple’s Course Together
It’s okay to seek guidance from professionals who can teach you how to improve your relationship. Whether you work with a licensed marriage and family therapist or join an online webinar, choose a course that is offered by a well-established expert. For example, working with a marriage and family therapist, you obtain a licensed professional with at least a master’s degree who can provide suggestions, worksheets, homework assignments, and many additional resources to better your relationship.
Set Goals Together
If you and your spouse don’t have a plan for your future together, you may find yourselves drifting in different directions. An activity for relationship building is goal setting, both short-term and long-term. Weekly, plan at least an hour together where you and your partner set goals you want to accomplish in the upcoming seven to ten days. This helps you get on the same page. Spend another hour or so discussing long-term goals.
Long-term goals are what you want to happen in a year, five years, and even ten years. You will get to know your spouse on a deeper level and vice versa. You will learn to compromise and problem-solve to help each of you reach your long-term goals, individually and as a couple.
Make Finances Fun
Because financial distress is one of the leading causes of divorce, you’ve got to do things to protect your relationship from financial problems. If only one of you is handling the money in your relationship, problems will arise. It is often most helpful to be jointly involved in everything from setting a budget, paying bills, saving money, and even finding ways to help others if you can.
Learning to work as a team with finances doesn’t have to be boring. There are plenty of worksheets and free courses to teach you how to handle family money together.
Write Love Letters
Sometimes, it is hard to say all the things you feel about one another when talking face-to-face. You get interrupted, distracted, or forget some of the things you want to say. Writing a letter allows you to take your time, think about the message, and include all the positive statements you can. Written letters can be kept forever and often reread to remind each other how you feel.
Touch Time
Remember the beginning of your relationship when you couldn’t keep your hands off each other? Now you can count on one hand how often you have physically touched each other during the previous week. Touch is essential in relationship building.
Do not worry about body changes that have happened over the years or allow irrational thoughts to dissuade you from touching your partner. Find time to cuddle, hold hands, hug, and any other ways to enjoy the feelings that touch can bring.
Make You Laugh
Laughter makes you feel good. It releases certain chemicals in the brain associated with happiness. Laughing with your spouse creates positive memories, just like when you fight with your spouse. You must make more fun memories to outweigh the negative ones.
There are many things you can do to enjoy laughing together, including watching sitcoms, comedy movies, and attending comedic events. You can also get creative and find ways to be playful.
Finally, do not let these relationship-building ideas be the only ones you try. Work together to find new and fun ways to make your relationship better.