Take Time This Summer To Enrich and Enhance Your Relationship

When you were a child, did you ever attend a summer camp? Spend the day away from home, learn some new skills, meet new people. Maybe even sleep away from home? Do you remember the adventure of discovering a new setting and adapting to a new environment?

Now, as an adult, summertime is still the ideal time to break out of your normal routine and experience something new. If you are in a relationship, consider doing something NEW this summer with your partner. Do something different together to enrich your relationship. Psychologists recommend that couples have new experiences together as a way to rediscover each other. Rather than buying him a tie for father’s day or a bunch of roses for your anniversary, consider DOING something new together to celebrate the occasion. A day trip, an overnight trip, a travel trip – whatever fits your time and your budget.

By having a new shared experience together, couples share the excitement and possible anxiety of doing something new, and adding it to your list of shared experiences. You will build your history as a couple — “Remember the time when we ___?” This will be an opportunity to laugh together, to learn together. You will see each other in an unfamiliar setting, and see each other handle new situations. This is an excellent way to break out of the rut of our daily lives which are full of routines, obligations and responsibilities. .

It does not have to be expensive or grand. Remember, the point is to do something new and fun together and to enjoy yourselves! Show off your sense of fun. You can check your local newspaper and TV websites for announcements of activities. Visit sites such as Groupon and Living Social for discounts. Make it into a date and behave as if you are courting each other once again.

Once you research what you are going to do, check with each other that it is something that is acceptable to BOTH of you. If you have children, you can certainly include them in the activity as long as they don’t become the center of attention/caretaking. Remember, this is for you as a couple, not a parent!

Here are some ideas to get your summer adventure started:

• Go to dinner at a new restaurant
• Visit a museum
• Go ziplining
• Go to a fondue restaurant restaurant together.
• Attend a weekend festival or free outdoor concert.
• Take a class together doing something you both enjoy; prepping meals for the week, making pottery, painting, learning how to make a birdhouse, go to one of our local theme parks or water parks
• Visit one of the local attractions that you have not seen yet. Go on a local river cruise or an airboat ride. Look for manatees/crocodiles.
• Attend a guided nature walk/bird sighting tour.
• Go canoeing or paddle-boarding together.
• Have professional portraits taken of the both of you.
• Take a 30-min walk together several times a week and discuss nothing except each other.
• Go on a 4-day cruise together. Several ships sail from Cape Canaveral every week. All you need is a long weekend. Nightly entertainment is included, including shows and dancing.
• Go on a hot air balloon ride.
• Plan a vacation so you can visit a new location together, or visit a place that only one of you knows well so the other can be a built-in free tour guide. 
• If you are both adventurous, you can go tandem skydiving together or go to the indoor skydiving attraction.
• Visit your local farmer’s market. You’ve been planning to do it but haven’t made time for it yet. What else have you been planning to do but not done yet? Do it!

The list is limited only by your imagination. Remember that the point is to do something new and fun together. This will give you the opportunity to learn something new about each other while you are having a good time.

Be sure to approach this activity with a smile and the spirit of adventure. Lighten the mood. Bring your sense of fun and your enthusiasm. Relationships flourish when both partners have a smile and the willingness to try something new.

Laugh with each other during your time together, behave as if you are on a date. Be wide-eyed and enthusiastic. Your relationship with each other is precious. You have devoted a lot of time and effort into it already. You already have a lot of strengths together. Both of you deserve to feel cherished and to communicate better. So take full advantage of the opportunity. Woo each other. Enjoy each other. Recreate the magic between you through new experiences together. By taking advantage of your free time this summer, you and your partner can reignite the spark and enrich the bond between you. Start making plans for some fun!

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