For nurturing and building a relationship, mutual trust, a deep sense of understanding, and respect between both the partners is a must. Unless both the partners share the same wavelength and have a good rapport, they will not be able to bond with each other well. Here are 5 very practical tips for building a relationship.

1. Become best friends first: The foundation for any kind of relationship is mutual trust and fondness for each other. If you try to establish a strong friendship with your partner, and communicate freely you will be putting across your feelings openly. You will notice that eventually, the two of you will develop such a high degree of transparency in your relationship and good mutual understanding that you will feel as if you are standing in front of a mirror and what you think gets automatically reflected in the partner’s mind. Once this kind of friendship develops between the two of you, it will act as a very strong foundation for your long term relationship.

2. Dedication and commitment: For building a relationship, the two partners must show a high degree of dedication and commitment towards each other. They must try and understand each other’s tastes, needs, feelings, and mental frame of mind in order to be able to build a strong relationship.

3. Mutual respect: The two partners must also make an effort to exercise adequate constraint to protect their relationship from being ruptured by mutual misunderstandings, fights, abuses and disrespectful behavior because once cracks are formed in a relationship, they are very difficult to fill in. You and your partner may not necessarily have the same tastes and share the same interests or hobbies. You may also be holding completely contradictory views on a particular subject. But the key to a long a successful relationship is to respect each other’s tastes, opinions and perceptions and not to thrust your views and preferences on your partner.

4. Give adequate space to each other: Even though a good friendship may have developed between you and your partner, it does not mean that you can intrude into the privacy of your partner. All of us need some breathing space and some solitude to sort out our thoughts and to keep ourselves focused. The secret to building a relationship which is strong and sustainable is to provide the much needed space to each other.

5. Avoid being judgmental: No person on the earth is absolutely perfect. We all have our own unique set of inadequacies. It makes no sense in highlighting each other’s follies and blaming each other for our failures. The partners must not be critical in their approach and keep complaining all the time. This is simply going to ruin your relationship. Instead, for building a relationship, the partners must adopt a tolerant attitude and explain their complaint to their partner patiently, without playing the blame game. It does pay off to appreciate your partner when they do something commendable. The most important aspect in building a relationship is to focus on each other’s strengths rather than sit and brood over each