Long Distance Relationships | Advice and Tools for your LDR

Japan researchers have developed a new way to connect – though I’m not sure I would find this type of technological “hug” very comforting!  It is a colorful pillow that comes with its own set of sensors and motors, creating a heartbeat and hugging motions based on how your partner is holding the pillow.  You can put your cell phone directly inside of it, allowing you to have a conversation while hugging also.

Would you use this?

To you and your partner, we wish you all the best fun this Valentine’s Day.

Still looking for ideas on what to do?  Check out our list of fun ideas

(PS – we are loving Google’s Valentine’s day doodle video… so very cute.  Just press ‘play’ on the logo.)

Image from http://favim.com/image/255315/

The world of celebrity long distance relationships continues to rumble!

Tyra Banks opened up about her new long distance relationship – she met her new man on while filming in China. He is from Bali, Indonesia, and she joined him there for the holidays. Things sound like they are getting pretty serious.

Johnny Depp and Vanessa Paradis are not having such luck. While they have been doing long distance for a while now, rumurs are spreading they their long distance relationship is less of a relationship – and more just distance.

These are just early rumors for both of these couples – I guess time will tell where things are truly headed.

Miss your partner especially when you go to sleep? Perhaps this new pillow from a designer in Scotland will comfort you. When you and your partner are in your respective beds, the pillow lights up softly, and if you get close to the pillow you will feel your partner’s heart beating. The only catch is that you both have to wear rings linked to the pillow when you go to sleep or the pillow does not work. Sounds like a pretty interesting concept.  Soon to be on sale here http://www.littleriot.co.uk/.

There seems to be something about pillows that designers like for long distance relationships (here is another pillow for long distance couples).  Do you think these concepts help couples?  Ever tried anything like these?  …. Or perhaps you have other ideas on ways to connect? Comment please

I officially have a masters project related to long distance relationships!

We are conducting study about how long distance couples use technology to communicate. We need volunteers (basically involves filling in a few questionnaires over a couple of days).

You might even learn a bit about how you and partner communicate!

Wanna participate? Click here to sign up.

(Image source: www.thesocietypages.org/socimages/)

Looking for some long distance inspiration? Check out this fantastic blog dedicated to long distance relationships http://fyeahlongdistancerelationships.tumblr.com/. It includes hundreds of stories from people about their long distance relationships. You can submit your pics, artwork and stories… like this one:

Thank you for the dates, the trips to to mall, food, rides, smiles, hugs, kisses, the prayers, great conversations, for letting me spend time with you, your family, and friends, for coming home, & just about everything else. It’s been fun + more.

Back to the ichat, text messages, phonecalls, letters, skype, ovoo, fb chat and everything else via internet.

I love you. Even if you are 2,203.24 (according to yahoo maps, from Angwin to Berrein Springs) miles away from me.

See you in the summertime

F-yeah!

A recent study found that partners who were born in different regions tend to have taller children than couples who were both born in the same town.  The author, Dariusz Danel, suggests this is due to genetic diversity.

The study looked at the heights of 2,675 boys and 2,603 girls in Poland.  While parental height and family wealth did have a very strong effect on height, they also found that the distance between the parents accounted for up to 20% of the height variation.

Yet another reason to stick with your long distance partner!

I know its not the same as being together – but there are other ways to “connect”.

Coupledtogether.com allows you to create your own online room – just for the two of you!  You each move around the room – selecting different activities to do. If you both are doing the same activity at the same time then you experience that area together. You can watch youtube videos together, share photographs, play games and more.

Trying to find some new ways to connect with your long distance partner?  How about these three ideas:

• Arrange to volunteer - at the same time: Experience spending a day helping those less fortunate. There are plenty of shelters and soup kitchens in your local community in need of volunteers. And the best part is coming home and talking with your partner about your experiences. 
• Drama on Skype – the good kind: Enlist your roommates – and put on a Skype show for your partner (and  their roommates). I’m talking plot, costumes, props, rehearsals – the whole deal! It’s a fun way to put your creative juices to work, while providing some serious entertaining for your partner and their friends.
• Counting Cars: “One of our favorites is the yellow car game. We get points each time we see a yellow car. Alvaro’s always sending me pictures of the yellow cars he sees. We send pictures of many other things too to make sure we’re constantly sharing our lives with each other” (quoted from Andrea).

Here are lots more ideas of fun stuff to do with your long distance parnter!

I have noticed that long distance couples, when they are together (actually physically in the same space) tend to do EVERYTHING together. This seems totally natural – I mean, you want to spend as much time together as you can, while you can. But there can be another type of pleasure from doing things that may be considered “ordinary” to proximal couples – and these things can involve a bit of separateness.

I was quite surprised when one of the more pleasurable evenings I “spent” with my long distance partner involved us doing things separately.  We were both in the same room – me reading, him playing guitar – and I had this sort of ‘aha’ moment realizing that if we lived in the same city, this is the type of thing we would do. It didn’t involve us discussing our deepest, darkest secrets – just us doing some more mundane, normal activities. There was a lot of pleasure in these simple activities.

A friend of mine commented something similar about seeing her long distance partner with her friends – it was just like they were one of the couples (rather than that long distance couple).  She enjoyed watching him connect with her friends, even if it meant he wasn’t only talking to her. She got to see him in a different light – see how he interacts in different environments. She really enjoyed it.

Sometimes you just want to be “normal”.  And that is totally normal.

So, next time you are with your partner, what type of more ‘ordinary’ things do you want to try?

(image from http://ihavearighttospeaktoo.blogspot.com/)