Healthy Dating Habits: Keys to a Happy and Balanced Relationship
The year 2025 is the best time to start dating mindfully. No more incompatible partners, no more toxic dating habits! Today we’re going to talk about building and sticking to healthy dating habits for a better romantic life.
What Are Healthy Dating Habits?
You know about brushing your teeth before going to bed and eating fruits and veggies every day. But what are the healthy habits in dating?
Healthy habits in a relationship are practices and little rituals that make your connection with the partner stronger and better, adding depth and meaning to your couple.
Many of them can be applied outside of romantic relationships too. For instance, emotional availability and open expression of feelings is one of the key healthy dating habits. So is active listening. As you can see, those things are highly sought after in friendships, work relationships, and families too.
The ultimate goal of healthy habits is to nurture trust and understanding between the two people. Only those romances withstand the years and decades where partners are on the same page and they encourage each other’s growth. Believe it or not, you can create such a powerful dynamic in your partnership with the help of small changes in your daily habits.
How Healthy Habits Improve Relationships
Good relationship habits implemented by both partners can make a world of difference to their dating experience.
Before diving into the must-have healthy dating habits, let’s go over the key benefits that they provide to both men and women.
Stronger trust
Can you really say someone is your soulmate if you don’t fully trust them? That’s unlikely. When couples act consistently and honestly towards each other, that creates credibility. You know what to expect from your lover, so you rely on them more. Slowly but surely, you end up trusting them more over the weeks and months of exercising healthy behaviors.
Excellent communication skills
Talking to each other is something we all do ever since we learned how to talk. This doesn’t mean that we’re all good at communication though.
Communicating well with others is a skill, and as with any skill, it can be mastered. When two people are dating, they’re eager to make things work and to really hear what the other person is saying. They do their best when talking to one another.
For example, instead of shouting and shifting blame, they can focus on resolving the core issue of their conflict, so they can put it past them and move on. To achieve that, people need to explain their points of view efficiently, listen to what the other person is trying to say, and get their point across without slipping into a toxic fight. That is, essentially, a boot camp for communication skills.
Balanced dynamics by the couple
When people work on implementing habits of a healthy relationship into their lives, they create a healthy dynamic in their union too.
For example, many couples avoid codependency because one of the good relationship habits is to maintain your own life, friend groups, hobbies, etc, all while happily dating someone. When grown adults continue to have their own thing despite being in a relationship, they are happier, they’re more independent, and there is no power imbalance.
Also, this keeps the relationship exciting and dynamic. In fact, many experience the so-called slow fade dating when people drift away from each other as a direct result of them not having enough going on. They stay together 24/7, talk about the same topics, and go out with the same friends. Life gets so monotonous and predictable, there is no excitement and nothing new is going on, so people lose the spark they once had and start to slowly fade away from each other’s lives.
Essential Healthy Dating Habits for Success
Now that we fully understand what healthy habits are and why they’re so crucial, let’s dive into how to date healthy with the essential dating habits.
#1 Honest and open communication
There is this stereotype about true love that “the right” person will understand you anyway. It’s a stretch though.
While yes, someone who’s compatible with us should be able to know what we mean, etc, they’re not mind readers.
Also, they might know what you mean or want and disagree with it. That’s where being able to talk openly and honestly comes into play. You need to be able to share your opinions and perspectives and come to joint conclusions on the next courses of action. All that is done through continuously communicating with good intentions.
#2 Showing gratitude
Everyone loves to feel noticed and appreciated, right? When two people date for a longer period of time, it’s easy to start taking things for granted. So what if she was cooking for me all week? So what if he’s been taking care of the things in the apartment? It’s easy to shift into the mindset where you think that it’s a given and nothing special at all. But if you do this more often about more things, the resentment starts to grow, and it begins to poison the relationship.
All of a sudden, your partner becomes more irritated, they’re snapping at you for all kinds of nonsense, and the tension grows. It’s all easily avoidable if you both continue to thank each other for the little things you guys do and voice your appreciation more often. For example, if someone is kind and handles your family dinners very well, tell them!
It’s not only good for your partner to compliment them and show gratitude, but it can also remind you why you fell in love with them in the first place. What a win-win!
#3 Respect for boundaries
We all have things that work and things that don’t for us. Healthy dating relationships pay attention to those boundaries and avoid overstepping them.
If you’re not used to having boundaries, it can be tricky to adjust, but do your best to not sabotage them and disrespect your lover. Boundaries are not meant to hurt or insult you, but rather it is a way for your partner to ensure they’re in a comfortable, loving, and supporting relationship. For you, knowing about the other person’s boundaries and respecting them is a way to show how much you love and care for them.
Remember that you can’t be 100% sure that you’ll never disrespect their boundaries, but you can absolutely do your best to be conscious about them. Little mishaps are bound to happen along the way, but as long as you genuinely care for the person and do not try to hurt them, you guys will be fine.
#4 Practicing Empathy and Emotional Support
Empathy is the cornerstone of all our relationships.
Ever since we are little kids we are taught to imagine what it feels like to be someone else and think how we would like it if someone treated us as badly as we treat them. Still, many of us lose (or never truly gain) this empathetic gene and we grow up into adults who are unable (or unwilling) to put themselves into their partner’s shoes.
What’s the result then? People fight more than they should and fail to understand each other’s perspectives.
Healthy couples practice empathy and show emotional support regularly. If you don’t fully know how to do that yet, try asking yourself how you would feel in a similar situation, and what would you like your partner to do. This is a great way to break through your typical thinking and shift how you view the world.
Tip: Reading fiction books is a known way to practice empathy. You get to live through so many fictional characters’ lives, watch them in their highs and lows, and deal with characters you hate and despise, but somehow end up understanding why they are like that too. If you’re an avid reader already – great, keep on reading! If not, try to squeeze in a couple of fiction books in your schedule. You’ll see the difference over time.
#5 Maintaining Physical and Emotional Intimacy
Something else that is important to work on and build a habit of in long-term relationships is physical and emotional intimacy.
The two are closely intertwined, whether we like to believe it or not.
As you date continuously, the sexual attraction goes down. It’s an inevitable situation most of the time. Some couples end up having no sex at all, and others reduce the number of intercourses dramatically compared to the first months of dating.
The less physically close you become, the higher the emotional wall is built between you. You can still be friends and feel for each other deeply, but there will be this unsaid awkward issue that you’ll be facing.
Successful couples who manage to maintain their sex life and keep it hot and spicy, despite dating for months and years, pay attention to this topic and plan their sexy dates.
Does it remove some of the fun as there’s no spontaneity? Maybe. But it’s much less fun if there is no sex in your life at all. A little planning and organizing won’t kill the buzz. So don’t forget to schedule romantic dates, plan what you both have for dinner to ensure there’s enough energy for the bedroom, and go on little staycation trips to help set the mood.
How to Cultivate Healthy Dating Habits
It’s easy to say that building healthy dating habits is important and everyone should be doing it. How do you actually cultivate them, though?
- Talk openly about things that you like and want to change. Agree on a plan.
- Practice makes perfect. You won’t become a great listener overnight, but you will at some point if you don’t give up midway.
- Maintain your independent life. Don’t get consumed by the relationship, or it will start driving you insane and building healthy habits will become really hard.
- Share kindness in your relationship. Notice how good your partner looks today, thank them for helping you with something, and support them when they’re feeling anxious.
- Aim to be constructive in conflicts. Remember that you want to be with this person and have a happy relationship, and not hurt them as much as possible or end up being right at any price.
- Set expectations on things that are important to you. It’s best to set those early on, but better late than never. You need to tell the other person what you want, and you should know what they want too. People aren’t mind readers, and they will be happy to accommodate their needs if they know what those are.
Practical Tips for Healthy Dating
The tips we talked about are great, but they take time. Here are more recommendations that you can pick up today and see the difference instantly.
- Put your phone away when you’re with your partner. Lock it in a different room and don’t check it at all.
- Ask open-ended questions the next time you speak to your partner and make sure to ask follow-up questions as well.
- Aim to give them at least one unique compliment a day (and really mean it).
- Do what you promised and be on time. No excuses.
- Reflect on the dates you have and the time you spend together. See what was good and what you can improve for the next time.
If you’re still single, here are the tips for you:
- Put yourself first. Not in a narcissistic egocentrism way, but make sure you’re your number one priority.
- When choosing partners, prioritize people with shared values and goals.
- If you want to find a healthy relationship, use a healthy dating site, not an app where people match to hook up.
- Go on dates where you can talk with someone and get to know them.
- Choose experiences and shared activities over movies where you sit in silence for two hours.
Overcoming Challenges in Building Healthy Habits
Building healthy habits is hard, especially if you have unhealthy ones to leave behind. Here’s what can help you.
- Set clear goals that you can plan and act based on.
- Baby steps. Take it one day at a time, and focus on smaller, achievable objectives.
- Identify the triggers that cause you to lose direction and work on eliminating them.
- Stay flexible and be ready to adapt if your circumstances change.
- Consistency over everything. Being consistent is more important than being very good but maybe once or twice a month.
- Manage stressful moments together. You’re a team.
- Come up with a reward system to celebrate each win.
Long-Term Healthy Dating Habits for a Stronger Bond
As you work on your healthy dating habits, treat them as a part of your routine, your lifestyle, and not something you just have to do for a certain time and then drop. Treat yourself and your partner with dignity and kindness. As you move along the journey of life together, pay attention to small wins and celebrate them along with any milestones you hit and achievements you accomplish.
Healthy Dating Habits FAQ
What is the healthiest way to date?
Healthy dating is not a mathematical formula that can be copied from one relationship to another, but there are common patterns. You need to have respect for yourself and your partner, share values and have common goals for the future.
What are the 5 C's of dating?
The 5 C’s in dating stand for Chemistry, Compatibility, Commitment, Communication, and Compromise. Those are believed to be the key principles for a healthy romance.
What are the 5 A's of healthy relationships?
The 5 A’s is an alternative set of healthy dating principles that stand for Attention, Acceptance, Appreciation, Affection, and Allowing. Follow them for a better romance.
