How to Build Intimacy in a Long-Distance Relationship

When you think of being intimate, you are thinking of sex, don’t you? But intimacy is much more than that.

So, How to be intimate in a long distance relationship? To maintain intimacy in a long-distance relationship, you need five things: 

1. Keeping in touch
2. Maintain emotional connection
3. Work on your communication
4. Have a plan and a timeline for your long-distance relationship
5. Take the time to share your feelings and listen to one another

In a long-distance relationship, it’s hard to be intimate but it’s not impossible. To figure out how to be intimate in a long-distance relationship, first, you need to understand what is intimacy.

Here we will talk about what intimacy is and the difference between physical intimacy and emotional intimacy. We’ll also explore the intimacy issues that couples face in a long-distance relationship. 

To build intimacy in a long-distance relationship, you need understanding and trust. 

It’s challenging to maintain a connection with a long-distance partner if you don’t trust them or if you’re unable to express how you feel without the fear of being judged.

Many couples communicate without thinking about it. But in the long-distance relationship communication is the only thing that can help you maintain your relationship.

It’s worth taking the time and learn how to communicate effectively in a long-distance relationship. Knowing how to express yourself and how to listen to your partner will help you build a relationship that is based on harmony and understanding.

If you don’t take the time to learn how to communicate, you risk having a lot of misunderstandings. These misunderstandings can quickly become issues that can strain your relationship.

How to Stay Intimate in a Long-Distance Relationship?

To stay emotionally connected in a long-distance relationship, you should have clear and open communication.

You should take the time to formulate your thoughts and ideas in a way that are easy to understand by your long-distance partner.

If you don’t take care of how you say things, they are likely to misinterpret your message and respond to it in the wrong way.

Commonly, people who are in long-distance relationships have a lot of doubts and insecurities about being with a romantic partner with whom they cannot be physically intimate.

These doubts, frustrations, and insecurities can make you interpret the message from your long-distance partner negatively. If you do, you will respond defensively, creating an argument.

You can avoid having arguments, and have a healthy long-distance relationship if you work on your communication with your long-distance partner. Check out this article to get you started.

How to Maintain Physical Intimacy in a Long-Distance Relationship? 

To maintain physical intimacy in a long-distant relationship, you should be able to visit each other as often as you like.

While it’s a beautiful idea, not all couples have the means to visit each other often enough to satisfy their needs for physical intimacy.

Suppose your long-distance relationship will last for a long time without you fulfilling your need for physical intimacy. In that case, it will get harder. It will eventually become a struggle instead of a joy that your long-distance relationship supposed to be.

Planning a long-distance relationship is one of the key things you need to make it work. You may decide that your long-distance relationship will last for three months, during which you will be able to see each other every two weeks.

In this example, you may still feel a little deprived of having physical intimacy with your romantic partner. But knowing that it’s a temporary situation will make the whole difference to the way you see your long-distance relationship.

Even if you can only visit each other once every two weeks, you can spend a lot of time doing things you like and working on your personal goals. You can also plan this visit to be fun and exciting, and you can come up with spontaneous trips to a different place every time.

To maintain physical intimacy you should first and foremost know how the distance affects your relationship, so you can handle it the right way. Our step by step guide will help you get started.

How to Stay Emotionally Connected in a Long-Distance Relationship? 

Emotional connection is essential to make your long-distance relationship work.

In a long-distance relationship, your connection relies on emotional intimacy. You can maintain an emotional connection with effective communication. 

This can bring clarity to your relationship and help you survive the long-distance. A simple tweak in communication can help you avoid arguments and bad feelings. You can improve your communication with your partner following a few simple steps.

With practice, you will no longer be afraid to express your feelings and desires. A long-distance relationship can be hard and may feel like a struggle, but it doesn’t have to be. I will show you how to turn it around.

Effective communication is essential for a healthy and successful relationship. If you would like to learn about what else you need to make your long-distance relationship work, check out this article.

To maintain the connection in a long-distance relationship is slightly different than when you are together. A large portion of communication is done through body language. 

In a long-distance relationship, you don’t have the luxury to observe your partner’s body. So to understand each other, you rely mostly on verbal and written communication. 

The clearer you can express yourself through words, the easier it will be for your partner to understand what you mean. A lack of physical touch makes it harder to maintain an emotional connection. 

Getting to know another person involves a lot of touching. Physical touch can reassure you that all is well, and it can also tell you if something is wrong. Without physical contact, it’s hard to navigate the state of your relationship.

Once you met your long-distance partner in real life, you know how it feels when you are together. But how do you stay connected without body language and physical contact?

In a long-distance relationship, your connection relies on emotional intimacy. You can maintain an emotional connection with effective communication. This can bring clarity to your relationship and help you survive the long-distance. 

A simple tweak in communication can help you avoid arguments and bad feelings. You can improve your communication with your partner following a few simple tips. With practice, you will no longer be afraid to express your feelings and desires.

Here is a workbook that’ll help you improve communication with your long-distance partner.

A long-distance relationship can be hard and may feel like a struggle, but it doesn’t have to be.

How to Make a Long-Distance Relationship more Intimate? 

To make a long-distance relationship more intimate, you need to work on improving your communication, which in turn will help to improve your emotional intimacy.

Expressing openly and freely with each other will help improve your relationship with your long-distance partner.

Talking about your feelings, sharing your thoughts and ideas are the things that build trust and make your long-distance relationship stronger. Knowing the common problems can help you avoid some of them and prepare you to handle others in a healthy and effective way. If you would like to learn what they are, have a look at this article.

Improving your physical intimacy in your long-distance relationship will require a plan to visit each other more often. Your meetings can also be more fun, exciting and spontaneous with a little bit of creativity and an element of surprise.

To maintain physical intimacy, make sure you visit each other regularly and are prepared for these visits in advance. Here is a workbook that’ll help you make the most of your visits as well as the time apart.

How to Increase Intimacy in a Long-Distance Relationship?

For you to maintain a healthy long-distance relationship, you need to work on keeping an emotional and physical connection.

You can maintain an emotional connection by having effective communication. Physical intimacy, on the other hand, is a lot harder to manage.

It can be hard to increase intimacy if you don’t have the means to visit each other as often as you would like.

Most couples can manage without physical intimacy for a few months. But, if your long-distance relationship doesn’t have an end date, it can be a confusing experience that will result in sexual frustration. 

After a while, the frustration spills into other aspects of your life and your relationship. If your long-distance relationship lasts a long time or you don’t have an end date, it can quickly turn into struggle and will be very hard to maintain.

Intimacy Tips for a Long-Distance Relationship

Here are some tips on how to be intimate in a long-distance relationship:

• Work on your communication.
• Take time to formulate your messages so that they are easy to understand.
• Take time to listen to your partner and hear what they want to share with you.
• If you have any doubts or insecurities or your feelings change, tried to share them with your long-distance partner as soon as you become aware that they exist.
• Make your long-distance relationship more spontaneous, exciting, and fun.
• If you are finding that your long-distance relationship became a struggle rather than enjoyment, reassess your long-distance relationship with your partner.

Conclusion

Physical intimacy is scarce in long-distance relationships. But doesn’t mean that you cannot maintain emotional connection when you are apart from your long-distance partner.

Maintaining emotional connection requires clear and open communication where you are free to express your feelings without being afraid that your partner will judge you.

You should learn to listen to your long-distance partner. It’s very likely that they also have doubts and insecurities about themselves or the relationship. You can be there for them to help them open up and support them through their journey of self-discovery.

The better they understand themselves, the more love and joy and happiness they can bring into your relationship.

Physical intimacy is a problem in a long-distance relationship. Ideally, you would have a plan for how long a long-distance relationship will last and be able to see each other as often as you’d like.

If you can’t see each other as often as you would like, try to recognise how you feel about it. Don’t compromise and don’t ignore your feelings, because it will only make it worse long-term.

If you are struggling with the lack of physical intimacy, the first thing you should do is to talk about it with your long-distance partner. If you don’t share your troubles with your partner, they won’t be able to help you. A long-distance relationship is teamwork. So help each other and love each other.

Here is our complete step by step guide for you and your partner to go through every aspect of your long-distance relationship, so you can address any outstanding issues and get your relationship on track to success.

How Healthy Is Your Long-Distance Relationship?

If you are having doubts about your long-distance relationship and are not sure if you should try to fix it or let it go, here is our step by step guide to help you and your partner reassess your relationship and make an educated decision that works for both of you.

Relationship Coaching for Long-Distance Couples

Long-distance relationships are hard to maintain without knowing exactly what they involve.

However, once you understand what long-distance relationships are, what they are not and how to navigate them, you are a lot more likely to make it work.

We specialise in helping long-distance couples create and maintain a healthy relationship by building intimacy, trust and effective communication.

If you are starting a long-distance relationship or are already in one, send us a message to book an individual coaching session for yourself or a couples coaching session for you and your partner.

Frequently Asked Questions