The 10 Essential Ingredients for Building a Healthy Relationship.

I am fond of reading magazines and books during my free time. That is the best way of killing time for me these days that I am away from my family and working abroad, and i want to share this beautiful topic which i excerpt from THE SAYIDATY MAGAZINE pp. 82-83 issue 15 February 2009 by Saudi Research and Marketing Group. I think it will be helpfull to everybody specially OFW like me.

Finding love and maintaining a healty relationship can be challenging for everyone. Experts say that you must have a balance of love, patience and self-esteem to really make it. Even just one person's efforts can make a big difference in a relationship. By focusing on these 10 elements, your relationship is sure to thrive for years to come.

1. HONESTY. Honesty is one of the most basic of all elements to any healthy relationship. A deep and loving honesty between two people says,"No matter what happens, you will always know the true me." This feeling allows couples to open up and be the best they can be with each other.
2. FORGIVENESS. Couples who can't make up will break up. As simple as this sounds, without forgiveness in a relationship, old hurts often resurface and neither person is truly able to let go of the past.
3. COMMUNICATION. Couples need to learn how to talk through both easy and challenging issues. Disagreement are part of every relationship. To get through them, partners have to learn to respect their different ways of communicating and "walk in their partner's shoes." This means learning how to communicate love in a way that your partner hears and feel it.
4. TRUST. Trust is like honesty in that it deepens over time. Couples, who are able to trust each other, don't have to deal with insecurities between each other. They 're able to speak freely and be themselves, knowing that their partner loves them for it.
5. TIME APART. Couples have to spend time away from each other. In the beginning being inseparable is normal, but over time, couples need to develop different interests and habits in order to have continued interest in the relationship.
6. FRIENDSHIP. Couples need to be friends as well as lovers. When the passion wanes, it is the deep friendship that keeps people together.Any long-term married couple will tell you that it is the friendship that keeps them together.
7. MONOGAMY. Monogamy is one of the founding element of all marriages. You can't have trust and honesty if theres isn't monogamy.
8. SIMILAR VALUES. This means that when you make major decisions in life, you two fall close to the same line. You may disagree about some issues, but the couples that are the happiest agree about the big subjects like money and how to raise children.
9. PATIENCE. If you can deal with your partner's issues and his or her imperfections with patience, you have the bond to make it through the rough times. Marriages don't end because there are problems; they end because people quit trying to work those problems out.
10. PASSION. Couples, who have the passion for each other, are able to sustain their love. While this may ebb and flow over time, the genuine passion for each other is at the heart of all lasting relationship.

I hope many people understand this and read this and apply it to theirselve, thanks to SAYIDATY on of the leading english magazine in the middle east for woman and also helpful to men.

GOD BLESS US ALL. And also by putting GOD above and in between our relationship it will guarantee a lasting healthy relationship for all of us.