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Put forth effort into the relationship and work hard to make it work. Communicate openly with your partner about your goals for the relationship and where you see it going. If you're only interested in a short-term fling, be honest. If you've got an eye toward serious long-term love, be honest. There's nothing wrong with either kind of love, but you need to make sure that your partner is equally committed to the same version of love that you are. Commit to the person and to the relationship. Put in work to make your partner feel special, and work toward making the relationship work. The word "intimacy" is often associated with sex, but being emotionally intimate is a huge part of a loving relationship. Emotional intimacy involves allowing yourself to feel and express vulnerability around your partner. Avoiding vulnerability can look like withdrawal, attack, or accusations. On the contrary, intimacy can look like sharing fears, discomfort, and disappointment with your partner. Feelings or situations that previously felt unsafe feel safer in an intimate relationship because of the vulnerability and trust that has been developed.  When you begin to feel vulnerable (like experiencing fear, sadness, shame, or hurt), take a moment and pause. Acknowledge whatever feelings come up and allow yourself to feel them; don’t avoid them. Take compassion on the feeling and be gentle with it. Share your vulnerable moments and let your partner support you. If you’re concerned that the initial attraction and strong feelings of love are wearing off, realize that love can occur in waves. Sometimes you feel overwhelmingly in love with someone, and other times you experience less love to or from that person. Just because you hit a low point doesn’t mean that the feelings will last forever. Life happens in cycles, and it’s okay that love experiences highs and lows.  Lots of things can create peaks and troughs in love, such as having children or growing older. You can work through them. You don’t have to be the one in control of the love in your relationship; let your partner express love toward you. Receiving love can feel vulnerable to some people because it requires letting go of control.  Be open to receiving gifts, accepting compliments, and warm gestures toward you. You may feel like you now owe something back, but let that go and enjoy the experience of receiving. Love does not have debts but multiplies. Touching does not need to be sexual, but engaging in a long, supportive hug or reaching out for your partner’s hand is a way to stay connected. Express your love for your partner by initiating and sustaining physical contact. Affection is one way to express care, appreciation, and other connecting, positive emotions.  Affection is a way to make your partner feel loved and for you to feel loving. Sometimes the way we communicate with a partner can be lost in translation, but gratitude is always understood. Affirm your appreciation of your partner by expressing gratitude. Thank your partner for showing that you notice the effort put into the relationship. Show appreciation for the things your partner does, and also for the qualities that your loved one embodies. The whole point of going through life with people you love is so that you can tackle life’s challenges together. Work together to find solutions, solve problems, and comfort each other when times get tough. We can’t solve everything on our own, we can’t know everything there is to know... but a whole bunch of people getting together out of love can solve just about any problem.
Commit. Be intimate. Accept that love is dynamic. Be open to receiving love. Touch your partner. Express gratitude to your partner. Be partners in life.