Relationships are a beautiful thing, especially when you’re devoted to strengthening your bond. Romantic connection isn’t about finding someone and settling into yourselves and letting everything go — in fact, the best relationships are made and maintained through dedication, effort and mutual respect for one another and the life you’re building. 

When you find creative, intentional ways to strengthen the connection you have with one another, you’ll find yourselves more satisfied, more understanding of one another and more secure than ever before.

There are so many ways to build a stronger, more devoted relationship to one another. Even if you’ve been together for years, you’re never done learning about someone. There are new opportunities to explore every single day, and you can use any number of activities to help you do it.

1. Meditate Together

Meditating together can help any relationship — romantic or otherwise. Meditation on its own offers a slew of benefits, from reducing stress to helping you focus. When you engage in meditation with your partner, you are tapping into that energy together and experiencing those benefits as a unit.

Meditation can help you develop a healthy sense of self, and the same is true for your relationship. When you take the time to calm down and tune in together, you open up a whole world of benefits.

2. Talk About Your Love Languages

There are five love languages — quality time, acts of service, physical touch, words of affirmation and receiving gifts. These languages of love are a way to identify how each person prefers to be cared for and feel affection. You can each take the quiz or even simply address and determine which acts make you feel the most loved, and talk about those findings together.

Really, your love languages are not just about you as an individual. By learning how your partner prefers to receive love, you can tailor your care for them to things they’ll appreciate and relate to the most, and they can do the same thing for you. This way, you understand each other better and act with one another’s feelings in mind.

3. Set Common Goals

A great way to gain a sense of unity in your relationship is to work towards something together. Setting goals together can give you a common place to devote some of your time and energy. You can save up some money for a vacation together, start eating a bit healthier or try to learn a new skill as a team. 

The process of working together and the eventual payoff when you reach your mutual goal can bring you closer and help you grow together in whatever way you choose.

4. Have Intentional Downtime Together

Sometimes, important moments and connections are made in the quiet times when you’re unoccupied and simply taking some time to chill out together. So much downtime nowadays is filled with entertainment like television and social media, but it can be wildly beneficial to take intentional downtime to simply talk and catch up together, unplugged.

Even if all you do is engage in random conversations, you can find connection in the little moments when you wind down with your partner distraction free.

5. Take Up a Shared Hobby

Unlike a shared goal, a shared hobby is purely about enjoyment and recreation. Find something you’ve always wanted to do together and finally carve out the time for it. You can take a class together, start a new project or even learn a language. When you take up a hobby together, you’re creating positive memories and energies with your partner and associating them with the relationship.

It doesn’t even have to be anything drastic. You can make a point to go hiking once a week, start a new game together or even delve deeper into something you’re both already passionate about. This can especially help you bond if you tend to have different interests from one another. Choosing a shared hobby can designate time for you to grow your bond.

6. Nurture Something Together

While it may sound a little symbolic, nurturing something you both love and care for can give you a connecting point as you work together to see all the little steps along the way. To be clear, we aren’t talking about babies here — unless, of course, you already have one — but a plant or a fish might be nice. 

Pouring your love into another living thing or project can serve as a beautiful manifestation of your care and devotion to each other. Maybe it’s a tiny basil plant in your kitchen. If you’re both artists, maybe it’s a collaborative project. The possibilities are endless.

Flourish Together

When you put effort into your relationship and your time together, your bond will grow stronger. There are so many ways to put your efforts into action, and as long as you both approach it with care and love, you’ll find the satisfaction you hoped for.