
Long distance relationships have their place. Sometimes two people have to be apart — for purposes of relocation, for instance — but for the most part, they’re very difficult and only serve as a temporary situation or a means to an end. But at our online divorce site, we’ve seen readers utilize the concept to their advantage when it comes to dating after divorce.
How are long distance relationships helpful? Let’s look at the ways.
1. They keep you from taking things too seriously, too soon.
Long distance relationships are highly efficient in getting you to downshift and not move so fast after you’re back out in the dating world. Following the divorce, it can be exhilarating that another human being shares interest and wants to spend time with you, and the happiness that comes with that can lead to you moving too quickly. It’s best to take your time, and these types of relationships will force you to do just that.
2. They help you get to know yourself.
You may think that since you’re the one living in your skin, you know yourself. Wrong! Following a divorce, you will find out things about yourself that either you never knew before or that you never realized had changed. This is important to the healing and rebuilding phase, and if you let another person in too soon, it will impede your journey. Long distance relationships can give you more time apart so that you can give the person you’re dating proper analysis while coming to terms with, and hopefully embracing, the new You.
3. They tell you everything you need to know about your partner.
Transparency and trust go hand-and-hand, and if the person you’re seeing in a long distance relationship wants to take things to the next level — and has the constitution for it — then he or she will show more transparency, trust, and a desire to be trusted, the further you go into the relationship. The distance will start to become painful instead of helpful, and they’ll want to be with you. Hopefully, you’ll be able to reciprocate that or at least know whether it’s worth your time. Without the long distance, you would never be able to notice these subtle but important changes to the relationship.
What have you enjoyed most about your long distance relationships, if anything?
[Image via Flickr Creative Commons]