5 tips to create fireworks in your relationship

Dating is demanding, but the real challenge lies in creating and nurturing a healthy, long-term, and committed relationship that you and your partner enjoy sharing. The frustrations of balancing work, raising a family, and maintaining a social life takes its toll on the vitality and romance of your relationship. Reignite passion and feel the fireworks from your first encounter over the 4th of July with the following five suggestions.

1. In with the new: plan a unique date. Can you recall the last time you and your partner planned a new adventure together? Finding new activities to collectively engage in adds excitement and fun to a relationship. Try something new by taking turns choosing unique dates. Going out to dinner or watching a movie at home gets old. Instead, plan to rent a kayak, picnic at a lake, pick up salsa classes, or anything else that may spice up the mood and abandon your bedroom routines.

2. Romance in the bed: make couple time and don’t rush it. Scheduling time to spend together in a more intimate manner is important. If you’re not the one who usually initiates bedroom fun, take control, and make the 4th of July your time to pursue your partner. What makes your partner feel romantic and passionate? Curiosity about what each person enjoys in the bedroom helps each partner feel desired – a sure way to strike a spark!

3. Amplify passion through text: be flirty. Set the mood for a passionate 4th with sexy texts and flirty messages. Feeling desired is a sure-fire way to increase romance. Tailor your messages so that your partner knows you choose them as your one and only.

4. Setting the mood: serve happy hour in the bedroom. A bedroom is the perfect place to set the mood for your own private happy hour. Prepare your partner’s favorite drink as well as light bites such as strawberries, chocolate, avocado, and nuts – all great aphrodisiacs. To set the mood, choose music, turn down the lights, and use the time to get to know each other again without the stress and burdens of everyday life.

5. Brighter together: fireworks are more dazzling with the one you love. At home or in a hotel out of town, your environment is inconsequential when you watch fireworks together. Whether at the beginning or the end of your 4th of July date, remember the fireworks aren’t what creates passion; it’s the two of you enjoying each other.

Every holiday gives you an opportunity to get closer to your partner. It’s all too easy to change into a pair of comfy sweatpants and your favorite t-shirt and turn on the television without saying a word to your partner, but that won’t create marriage sparks on the 4th of July. Couples in relationships they love understand that, with a little creativity and fun, they can enjoy creating and watching fireworks in their bedroom.

Psychotherapist Mary Jo RapiniHouston's Morning Show