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Midlife Love: 10 Essential Things You Must Know

December 22, 2019 | Romance & Relationship | By Amanda Johnson

Midlife love isn’t exactly the same compared to the love life experienced in your twenties, thirties and sometimes forties. Things are bound to change in relationships during this time as hormonal changes alter sexual desires while old age begins affect the body and memory patterns, vision, and even communication.

Things are a lot different at this time as children are becoming adults, following their own life paths and most times leaving homes. There’s a lot to adapt to as these changes occur gradually without being noticed.

Love life is totally different at this time and there are certain things you must know before indulging in midlife love or relationships. These include

1. Developing Communication

Communication is very important in any relationship. Midlife love or relationships now have the time and energy to turn towards improving their communication and reignite the fire of passion and growing older together as the end of this communication and passion might signal the end of the relationship. It’s important to develop communication if the relationship is going to go any further.

2. Forgiveness

Forgiveness is something you should be willing to do if you plan to indulge in midlife love or relationships. You’ll always be wronged by your spouse; the important thing is what you do after you’ve been wronged and how you handle it. This is where forgiveness comes in. Forgiveness is very important for your emotional health as well as very supportive of your relationship. It isn’t so easy but it’s very vital in a relationship.

3. Quality Time

At this time of your life, you both have a lot of time to spend together but the important thing is what you do with this quality time. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a long time, as long as it is done often enough to keep the relationship going and keep you both connected. It can be spent anywhere doing anything that will help you both bond.

4.Friendship

If your midlife love or relationship is going to work, you both have to be not just lovers but also friends. Emotions are fickle and may fluctuate from time to time. It’s not all the time those romantic moments come along which most likely keep you both together irrespective of other challenges in friendship. A relationship where couples are both friends and lovers tend to last longer than those with only romantic involvements.

5. Honesty

Before going into a relationship you must be ready, to be honest with your partner. Knowing you can totally trust your spouse’s strengthens, your relationship and makes it last a lifetime is always a boon. Having an honest relationship helps during difficult times when things seems to be falling apart. It’s easy to go through those times with someone you can trust and rely on.

6. Maintaining Boundaries

People often consider boundaries a bad thing or unnecessary but this is totally wrong. All healthy relationships have boundaries; same must be said about midlife relationships. Boundaries are very critical. Both partners need to communicate, maintain and respect each other’s boundaries. It allows both partners to feel comfortable, develop positive self-esteem and respect for each other.

7. Offering Support

In midlife love or relationships, support for your significant other is very important. Individuals in their midlife tend to feel isolated and lonely making this support critical. Be there for your partner physically and emotionally to keep the connection strength intact.

8. Patience

One important thing to know about midlife love and relationships is that they require a lot of patience to strive. Spouses are in a position of emotional and physical weakness at this time of their lives requiring patience to see them through this stage. At the end of the day, your relationship will come out on top after being patient and conquering all the hurdles.

9. Physical Closeness

Physical closeness is very important for midlife love and relationships as it strengthens the bond between couples at this time when hormones alter sexual desires. It doesn’t just include sex, it can range from eye contact, holding hands, hugs, and cuddling. Physical closeness will have a positive effect on nearly every aspect of the relationship.

10 Love Yourself

You might do everything in the relationship right and still fall short if you don’t love yourself. Having a low sense of self-worth or love will affect a lot of your behaviors and also affect your relationship with others. It also affects your decision making and makes you settle for less. Look out for yourself and watch people do the same. No one can make you happy more than you can do yourself.

Midlife love and relationships are a lot more complicated and should be handled a lot differently. Knowing these essentials will help you start on the right note and a blissful relationship.