The holy trinity of a healthy and substantial relationship is: trust, respect and ultimately good communication. Sounds simple right? Not exactly. In my experience most relationships—especially young relationships—lack in at least one if not all of these qualities. If you respect your partner than you should fully trust your partner and will therefore, have better communication within your relationship when conflict arises.
Trust
I can't begin to stress how crucial trust is in order to maintain a healthy romance. I mean, everyone knows the importance of trust, but from what I can tell, few couples express trust in their relationships. Trust goes far beyond cheating, but the fear of it occurring is the primary reasoning behind jealousy, which essentially leads to trust issues. It's not a matter of if the person is jealous but a matter of how much. They say a little bit of jealousy is actually healthy in a relationship because it's a small indicator of how much a person really cares. However, if your partner is envious to the point where they won't allow you to hangout with friends of the opposite sex, or even go anywhere remotely fun without them, because they fear you'll have a "great time without them" or "meet someone else and fall in love" then that's beyond a red flag.
Trust is knowing that the person you're with will properly handle a situation they know will make you uncomfortable, and then still tell you about it because, although it causes you discomfort, they want you to know that you can always trust them. Let's not forget that everyone lies now and then, and if you truly feel that your partner isn't being honest then simply express this to them in a non-confrontational matter. So many people would rather speculate than ask the person what's up because they don't want to come off as "jealous" or worse "psycho." Well what's more severe: building trust issues and resentment in your relationship and having the truth come out later in an unhealthy manner or, coming out and expressing how you feel about the matter in the moment when you're still sane?
Overall if you do not trust the person that you are with then why stay with them? It's easier to remain single until you're confident with yourself so that you don't project your insecurities onto someone else.
Respect
Another key element to a healthy relationship is mutual respect of one another. This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you can't respect the person you're with than how the are you ever going to take them seriously? By respecting your partner, you are also accepting who they are as a person. Let me repeat myself, you are accepting them for who they really are. Truly loving someone means you love them 100 percent, flaws and all. Otherwise, when you choose to be in a relationship with someone you should admire their little quirks and imperfections unless it's an absolute deal breaker for you. If that's the case, then you should simply walk away from the relationship, which shouldn't be a problem if it's fresh.
Now you may be wondering, "Well what if it's not so easy? What if I've been in my relationship for years and have invested too much time to just leave it?" Well then my question to you would be, "Why are you wanting to suddenly change who your partner is? Is it because you're finally fed up with those flaws you once found attractive?" It totally makes sense and you should be completely open and honest with your partner about these concerns. However, understand that just because they are in love with you does not mean they have to completely change their way of thinking or, for example, the way they dress. A person shouldn't change just because their partner demanded them to, but because they themselves chose to for the good of the relationship.
Remember that respect is a two-way street and every relationship must have sacrifices in order to reach a compromise. Appreciate someone for who they are and having them change on their own accord is more admirable than forcing them to change.
Communication
Not just communication, but good communication is the final point. Everyone has their own opinion of what they consider good communication. In some instances, there is no communication whatsoever like when couples decide to avoid any sort of talk and skip straight to makeup sex. That's fine and dandy until the next day or week, when your boy/girlfriend decides to bring up said issue which the sex should've completely erased. Sorry, but it doesn't always work that way.
They say you should "Never go to sleep angry. Because you never know if you or the person you're mad at will wake up the next morning." Try to remember this when you and your partner haven't spoken all day. Instead of dealing with the problem, you'd rather ignore each other and prolong said problem. I don't know about you, but if a problem persists more than a couple hours I don't have the ability to remain stubborn so if need be, I will in fact, make the first move to initiate the talk. Sometimes, when a fight is irrelevant, it helps to apologize even when you're sure it's not your fault just to end it and move on with your lives.
It's important to note that fighting is completely healthy in relationships. Don't assume that because you fight you're not meant for each other. It depends on the consistency and circumstances behind each fight. On the other hand, if you never fight and claim to be a perfect couple then you must be delusional. In reality, you should face hardships within your relationship because it's the struggles that you overcome together that show what a strong couple you are.
