Are you in a long distance relationship? Are you looking for ideas to make long distance relationships easier and more interesting? You’ve definitely come to the right place!
It takes effort to maintain any kind of relationship. Add to that not being able to see each other often and communicating primarily through text, and things get to a whole new level of complicated, right?
My now husband and I lived in different cities for a total of four years. During one of those years, we lived half way across the world, and couldn’t meet the entire year! (WHAT!) As students who didn’t have much money, we simply couldn’t afford the travel.
But by the time we could finally be together again, we both had a new-found appreciation for our relationship and our proximity to each other. Which makes the struggle completely worth it in hindsight.
So, how did we survive the long distance?
Ideas To Make Long Distance Relationships Easier
Almost every problem presents itself with an opportunity to get creative. Sure, you might find yourself glued to your phone on some days more than others, miss a few important events in each others’ lives, and secretly hate couples that get all cuddly around you, but the situation by itself isn’t entirely terrible.
1. Communicate often
Since you don’t see each other often, it’s important to remind each other how much you like/miss them. Don’t overdo it to the point where it interferes with your other friendships and work/school, but text and call each other as often as it feels natural and comfortable for you.
You could send them #ootd pictures, songs that remind you of them, interesting articles or funny memes you come across. Anything to let them know you’re thinking about them even though they’re far away.
2. Plan your next visit
Depending on how long it’ll take before the trip, talking about your next visit can sometimes be painful. But it can also be exciting to plan it together and have something to look forward to!
Talk about activities you’d like to do when you meet, favorite hangouts you want to take them to. You can also decide to visit certain places in your city only when you’re together – making the place special!
To spice things up, you could meet each other at different cities or countries! If you’re hopping onto a plane anyway, wouldn’t you rather it be to a destination where you can both make shared memories exploring a new place together?
You’ll learn so much more about each other when you travel together, and this is a great way to strengthen your bond.
3. Watch movies together on TwoSeven
Desperately dodging spoilers for your favorite movie or TV show because you’re waiting to watch with each other when you meet? Wait no more!
You can host a virtual movie night on TwoSeven (https://twoseven.xyz) – a free-to-use webapp on which you can watch the same thing at the same time. It comes with inbuilt webcam chat so you can talk and see each others’ reactions as you watch your favorite movie!
Back in 2015, my husband and I wanted to watch Game of Thrones together. We did the annoying “3..2..1..play” at first. But being engineers, we decided to build a solution for ourselves – TwoSeven.
We’ve since opened TwoSeven up to the internet and continue to improve and maintain it to make long distance relationships a little easier for all of you as well!
Also read:
How to use TwoSeven
4. Get a hobby together
One thing that baffles most long distance couples is not knowing what to talk about because you might have completely disconnected lives and social circles!
This is where picking a common hobby can be a game changer. Here are some examples of how you can bring something common to your otherwise different daily routines:
- Love reading? Read the same book and discuss it during your calls
- Take the same online course and motivate each other on class projects
- Play co-op PC games (on Steam)
- Watch tutorials and start interesting DIY projects (YouTube on TwoSeven)
- Learn musical instruments and play songs for each other. Even better – learn different instruments and be your own two-member band!
- Start a digital art project, share it back and forth to add colors, texture, and detailing (Procreate or Photoshop)
- Work on a collaborative coding project (like we did while building TwoSeven)
There are thousands of ideas you could choose from based on your skills and interests. What better relationship than one in which you help each other grow creatively?
Definitely my favorite idea to make long distance relationships easy and fun!
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5. Surprise each other
Order and ship something that you know they’ve been eyeing for a while. Although I don’t encourage spending excessively to make your partner happy, it’s nice to gift something meaningful occasionally.
Even something as simple as a handwritten note in the mail can make a big difference!
You can also surprise them by dropping in unannounced! Spontaneity goes a long way in keeping things interesting.
However, I recommend coordinating this with one of their friends so you can avoid being stuck outside their door for hours, or worse, give them a rude shock, forcing them to cancel other plans they were looking forward to.
Which brings me to my next, very important point.
6. Give each other space, freedom, and trust
While everything I mentioned until now was about how you can spend time together even when you’re apart, it’s important to respect each others’ need for space.
Take time away from each other once a while, meet family and friends, spend time doing things that you love, use some me-time for self-care and introspection. Give each other reasons to build trust in the relationship without losing your independence and identity.
Did you find any of these ideas helpful? What are somethings you do/did to make long distance relationships easier? I’d love to hear in the comments!