Creative Dating: Building a Healthy Relationship from the Start This is designed to be a basic design for your bulletin board. Please feel free to adapt this design to fit the needs of your audience. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the STOP Violence Office. Knight Hall

Creative Dating Building a Healthy Relationship from the Start

1.Build. 2.Explore. 3.Establish. 4.Grow. 5.Communicate. 5 Easy Steps to a Healthy Relationship

BUILD Build a foundation of appreciation and respect. Focus on all the considerate things your partner says and does. Happy couples make a point of noticing even small opportunities to say "thank you" to their partner, rather than focusing on mistakes their partner has made.

EXPLORE Explore each other's interests so that you have a long list of things to enjoy together. Try new things together to expand mutual interests.

ESTABLISH Establish a pattern of apologizing if you make a mistake or hurt your partner's feelings. Saying "I'm sorry" may be hard in the moment, but it goes a long way toward healing a rift in a relationship. Your partner will trust you more if he or she knows that you will take responsibility for your words and actions.

GROW Allow for change and growth. No matter how old you are, youre still changing. Being human means being a participant in a game in which the rules are constantly in flux. If you are willing and ready for your partner to change, you know youre starting out on a very healthy track. People (and situations) change, and being flexible emotionally means youre doing all of the above positive things (communicating and having realistic expectations) and avoiding the negative. Really, being flexible about a relationship is the most mature approach possible. It allows you and your partner to be human, to make mistakes, and to act to make up for them.

COMMUNICATE It is a wonderful thing to find a person you can really communicate with. This doesnt mean you have to sit around discussing great works of literature or complex mathematical equations (although intellectual discussion can be quite romantic) communication just means that you and another person have shown a willingness to, well, listen to one another. Communicating isnt talking it means one person talking and the other listening and responding. If youre entering relationships with the intention of learning about a person (and teaching them about yourself), youre probably on the right track. The opposite of this behavior can be deadly for a relationship.

FUN, FREE DATE IDEAS Go window shopping. Discuss what you would buy if you had lots of money. Go to the children's section of a library or bookstore and read children's books to each other. Find a muddy area, dress in your grubbies and have a mud fight. For groups, take along a rope for a tug-of-war

FUN, FREE DATE IDEAS Locate a large piece of cardboard. This can be found at a nearby furniture or appliance store. Curve the end up like a toboggan. Find a sloping hill of dry grass and slide down. Wear older clothes (grass stains). On a sunny Saturday morning, travel around the countryside and photograph special sites and serene scenery. Go for a walk together either in a crowded city or alone in the country.

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