This year, as you prepare to spring clean your home, why not spring clean your love life with some healthy dating habits, too? Now that the first signs of green are beginning to appear, it’s the perfect time to breathe new life into your world.
Spring cleaning your love life with some good dating habits isn’t as daunting as it seems either. Think of it as you would your home. Take stock of what’s working, get rid of what’s not, identify what areas still need some work, and plan for new approaches moving forward.
To help you get started, we’ve put together six healthy dating habits that you can adopt as you welcome in the new season.
Spring Clean Your Love Life and Embrace These Healthy Dating Habits
1. Date outside of your “perfect” criteria
It’s important to know what you want in a partner. But, it’s also important not to let your list of must-haves and dealbreakers rule your love life. If you’re tired of seeing the same profiles on dating apps or you’re bored with your search results, change things up!
Change your search criteria and see what happens. Respond to a message from someone you think you wouldn’t normally date. Try dating virtually with someone you’re on the fence about. Be open to new possibilities every once in a while and you might be surprised by who you meet.
2. Reflect on your past dating habits
Part of embracing healthy dating habits is reflecting on your past. Be honest: Do you have any bad dating habits? Don’t worry, we all do! Think about your previous dates and relationships to identify if there’s anything you want to leave in the past. Then do your best to move forward without it.
Being this real with yourself can feel daunting and uncomfortable at first. But, sticking with it can make you into a better dater and help to ensure that you’re part of good relationships moving forward.
3. Stop playing games
Dating rules do more harm than good. If you want to form good dating habits, stop playing games and start being yourself. Respond to a text as soon as you want to. If you like someone, tell them. If your date doesn’t like it, then they’re not the right person for you!
The right person will be all about YOU. The most successful daters follow their guts and do what feels right, not what they think a playbook would tell them to do.
4. Practice self-love
The classic dating wisdom goes: Before you can love someone else, you need to love yourself first. When it comes to healthy dating habits, self-love is great! It helps you in knowing who you are, accepting who you are, and celebrating who you are.
Self-love for men is equally as important as it is for women. It’s knowing your worth in a relationship and not compromising your values for someone else. It’s protecting yourself by setting boundaries, prioritizing your needs, and being kind to yourself. When you practice self-love and know who you are without second-guessing yourself, it’s easier to know what relationships are and aren’t right for you.
5. Embrace being single
The spring cleaning metaphor doesn’t mean your love life is broken and in need of fixing. It’s a gentle reminder that everyone — even people in happy, long-term relationships — can benefit from occasionally examining and refreshing their habits.
Don’t think of being single as a problem to fix. Embrace single life as a time of great freedom and independence. You’re not tied down and can go wherever it is that you want to go!
6. Actually go on dates
The best way to form healthy dating habits? Practice! Spring cleaning the way you think about your love life is only half the battle. It might sound obvious, but if you want to form better dating habits, you have to get out there and date.
Try some easy first dates – like meeting for coffee or a drink – as a low-commitment way to start. The more you put these ideas into practice, the better dater you’ll become.
Take Your Time and Focus On What’s Right for You
Just like when you spring clean your home, it’s okay to spring clean your love life little by little. You wouldn’t defrost your freezer AND polish the silver AND clean the oven AND shampoo the rugs AND flip the mattress all in one day!
Take your time when breathing new life into your dating habits. And if you feel inspired to spring clean your love life at any point during the year, go for it! You don’t have to wait for the snow to melt and the leaves to turn green to start practicing healthy dating habits. You can do it as often as you like!
