The lockdown measures have had a marked impact on relationships across the world. But exactly what that impact has been will have varied tremendously between couples. If you were just getting started when the lockdown struck, you might have been forced together ahead of time. On the other hand, your relationship might have been on the brink of falling apart, only for events to force everything back together again.
You might have read that the divorce rate in Wuhan has skyrocketed following the relaxation of lockdown measures. It turns out that you learn quite a bit about a partner if you’re forced into close quarters with them for months on end – and quite a few Chinese people didn’t much like what they discovered.
With this in mind, you want to take steps to ensure that you aren’t a part of this unhappy statistic, and that your relationship is kept harmonious during lockdown.
Activities to do as a Couple
One of the easiest ways to ensure that you spend time with your significant other is to agree to commit a certain number of hours each week toward a joint activity. If you’re both struggling for fitness, then you might decide to start running together. Supporting one another through those psychological barriers can help to strengthen the bond between you, and it’ll confer loads of other health benefits, too. The couch to 5k programme can help you get started.
Of course, not every activity you do together needs to be quite so stressful. Picking something to watch together on Netflix can be a simple way to spend time together on the sofa, even if you’re not actively having anything to do with one another. At the same time, there are hundreds of different quizzes going on YouTube, Facebook and Twitch – so why not do one every week?
One activity that might yield long-term benefits is interior (and exterior) design. If your garden living space looks like it could do with a revamp, then why not invest in the appropriate furniture, and redesign around it.
Establishing Boundaries
As well as doing things together, it’s also important to take the time to pursue your own interests apart form one another. If you don’t have your own individual spaces carved out in the house, then you’ll be stepping on one another’s toes, even if you aren’t doing so deliberately.
If you’re both working from home, then this is particularly important. There’s nothing quite so capable of breeding resentment as constant interruptions, particularly if you’re getting into a state of flow. Establishing boundaries at certain times of the day, and getting together with others, will ensure that you have enough time apart to miss one another, and not enough together to get sick of one another.
