After a consecutive 10-day span of Netflix and Uber Eats, I began to worry that this could be the beginning of the dimming of our romantic flame. I didn’t want our relationship to lose its exciting energy. We were both such active people when we first met, but the stresses and demands of everyday life left us exhausted and it was starting to seem like we’d stopped putting as much energy into ourselves and our relationship as we used to.
I decided it was time to make a change, so we got in the car and hit the road. We decided to approach the day like we were at summer camp — we rented bikes, went swimming in the lake, and played boccie ball at a local tavern.
This action-packed day left us feeling excited, alive and more connected to one another than we’d been in ages (or the past few weeks, anyway). That day we made a pact to break free of our lazy routine every weekend and be more active together through shared hobbies.
Engaging in an activity with your spouse can strengthen your bond and help you create unforgettable memories. To keep things fun and fresh in your relationship, try some of these activities together:
Explore the Great Outdoors
Take the weekend to get into nature and enjoy the serene sounds and sprawling vistas. Spending time together without distractions allows for moments of open communication and opportunities to bring out your adventurous side. Going on biking or backpacking trips can bring you closer together since you have to rely on teamwork to navigate the trails and set up your tent.
If you live near NYC and you’d rather opt for a two or four-hour hike, we love the Storm King Mountain trail, which is about an hour north of NYC, but you can choose your adventure here.
Play a Sport
If you both enjoy being athletically active, take up a sport you can play together. Golf is one you can play together until you’re 90 years old (or so the sales pitch from my golf-loving husband goes).
Tennis is another excellent activity for couples to enjoy, as it can vary in intensity and can be played with just the two of you. Or, if you want to put your tennis skills to the test, play against another couple for a fun challenge. Find couples looking for friendly competition on the USTA site.
For an extra challenge, learn an unusual sport together like kayaking, archery, fencing, or sailing.
If you and your spouse love living on the wild side, try a more extreme hobby like white water rafting, skydiving, rock climbing or drag racing. Drag racing is an exhilarating sport that helps relieve pent-up stress. Around the country, there are weekend drag races happening where cars race at speeds up to 115 mph. To equip your car, make sure it has the proper safety features and high-quality equipment. Then, fulfill your need for speed and some healthy competition by racing against each other.
Find Your Zen
Practicing yoga or meditation with your spouse is an effective way to center yourselves and find your calm. Many yoga studios offer classes for couples yoga, which increase the communication and sensitivity in your relationship.
Couples meditation is a powerful way to relax together on a daily-basis and can also come in handy during times of conflict. If you are new to meditating, there are several mobile apps that provide you with guided meditation sessions that you can practice with your loved one.
Take a Mini-Vacation
Not feeling the road tripping vibe? There are loads of last-minute vacation discounts online. Find one and go somewhere really spectacular. Traveling together is a great bonding experience.
Google Flights and Skyscanner have handy map tools that can help you find the cheapest flight. If your destination is open-ended — i.e., “anywhere with a beach” — use the map to pick the most economical locale.
A travel app I love is Very Chic, which offers curated last-minute deals if you need a romantic place to stay tonight, tomorrow or within the next couple of months. While some deals – especially in the US – are not so good, it can deliver deep discounts in Europe and the UK. BluByn is a new app with a personal concierge that will help you find the best travel deals from across the internet. Here’s a list of more great travel apps.
So take your adventurous spirit, your active lifestyle, and your insatiable curiosity and use those traits to explore and revamp your relationship. Ready. Set. Go!
We love to go shopping at antique stores. You can find some pretty neat stuff, and you’re bound to see random toys and stuff you had from your own childhood (even if you’re not that old, many sellers just add it to their collection because they have the space) to bring back some nostalgia.
Similar to road trips, sometimes my boyfriend and I will “get lost”, as in drive out of town and take turns deciding which way to go until we have no idea where we are. Its always fun to discover new places and its also kind of exciting to try to remember your way back without GPS
All new relationships have a honeymoon period before settling down a bit. You can’t expect that new relationship energy to last forever. That being said, relationships should be the doldrums, either. But it’s up to us to do anything and everything to spice things up a bit.
Lay in bed watching a thunderstorm. We live in Phoenix at the moment temporarily. The rain is rare here. We do get nice monsoons from time to time and we had the best time talking and watching the rain and lightning.
It’s easy when you enjoy quiet comfortable things like doing your own things but in the same room, but also make sure to go out for special dates. Plus, the trick the getting flowers is to do it on the “unimportant days”. Odd, but in all the problems I’ve faced in relationships, including this one, “keeping it fresh” is not one I’ve experienced.
You give the greatest advice! I have really liked this post and I feel that these are tips that will actually work. They are so simple yet so effective, I think. Thank you very much for sharing them! 🙂
I’ve been in my relationship for almost a year, but he had to move out of the city and I miss him so much, but he seems to be busy all the time and it pisses me off because if he cared I think he would take some of his time to FaceTime me or something. I don’t know if he loves me anymore
Hide and go seek inside the house with all the lights turned off and loud music. It’s fun, active, and after a couple drinks can be quite sexy. ?
Sounds like pure horror to me. I’m imagining loud, heavy metal in a dark house not knowing where the fuck you are. Touching someones head and long hair, saying “gotcha!” then you hear your significant other from the other side of the house “but I’m over here…”
Constant physical contact, every time we pass each other walking around we touch, sitting on the couch we’re always intertwined somehow. This leads to a lot of random sexual contact which is great.
I wish my SO would understand this! I’m getting so frustrated and feel like we’re more like roommates who occasionally have sex because we never do any dates or romantic things.