You can always say you love someone, but how do you show them you genuinely love them?
Actions do speak louder than words.
There is an endless number of ways we can show our S.O. we love them. However, it can be challenging for some of us to show them either in person or in a long-distance relationship. Everyone sees and perceives showing love differently. Learning how to show our significant other love is fantastic.
Of course, we want to show our favorite person in the world and show the world that we love someone. But you always want to be authentic and genuine in showing someone love. The building of a lasting, caring relationship is on the foundation of your actions and your words.
Don’t fret!
We at Lovebox have you covered with our best tips and advice on how to show someone you love them, genuinely, authentically, and naturally!
Ready to dive in? Let’s get started!
What Is the Best Way To Show Someone You Love Them?
Of course, everyone is different, but there’s still a few basic desires of every human being when it comes to wanting to be loved and being shown love. When you genuinely love and care for another person, it becomes more engaging and mutually satisfying than you imagine.
We have put together a list of the best ways to show you genuinely care and the best way to love your partner from their perspective. As cliché as it may sound, the more love you give, the more you will receive.
1. Pay Attention
When you love someone, you want to hang onto every word they say.
You want to watch their face as the sun shines through the window and lands on their hair.
You want to see their face light up when you surprise them on a random Tuesday with their favorite food.
You want to pay attention, and you aren’t afraid to let them know.
Paying attention to someone you love shows them they have your complete and undivided attention. And, in today’s world, that is one of the best ways to show someone you love them.
Showing someone you love them is not showing any judgment (or suggestions on how to “fix” their problems), just genuine care for your partner. This suggestion is not to say you are their therapist, but you want to know what your partner is going through so you can support them and love them.
2. Handwritten Notes
Get out your stationary and your stamps!
In our world today, writing down our thoughts and feelings on handwritten notes or stationary shows someone how much you love them. Taking the time to handwrite something shows them how much you care.
It doesn’t have to be fancy or even beautifully written, just something from the heart. Even throwing a post-it note in your partner’s lunch bag or purse saying how much you will miss them and can’t wait to see them when they get off work is a thoughtful gesture of your love for someone.
3. Small Gestures
If you love someone, it frequently comes naturally to make loving, kind small gestures randomly throughout the day. However, some small gestures don’t come naturally, and you must put more thought into them.
It is better to show someone you love them through multiple small gestures instead of through one or two grandiose gestures of love or through paying large amounts of money for presents. All of these can show your love for someone; however, it does come across as more genuine and authentic through daily acts of small gestures of your love.
If you’re not sure what some of the best small gestures of your love may be, we’ve got you covered. Sometimes, it can be hard to know what your partner prefers, especially if it is a somewhat new relationship. The following are some of our best suggestions for showing love through small gestures.
- Get comfortable complimenting them in private and in public.
- Always remember their favorite coffee order when getting yours.
- Be observant of their likes and dislikes.
- Pay attention to important dates in their life so you are aware of what they may be feeling that day.
- Commit to not looking at your phone when you are on a date.
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Show support during difficult times at work or in their family.
If you’re not sure what to do first or not sure if the person you love will want these small gestures, go ahead and try the ones you’re most comfortable with first.
4. Make Their Favorite Meal
Food is the way to the heart. Even if you feel like you aren’t a good cook, you can always find something to make them, and they will love whatever it is. Maybe they love pie.
Call your mom and get her legendary apple pie recipe and attempt to make it. Perhaps they love banana bread or vegetarian chili. Whatever it may be, just the simple act of you trying to make their favorite meal shows them how much you love them.
Don’t worry about perfection or failure! Just get out there and try to make something for them. They will love anything you make for them because you made it! You can always get some help making their favorite food from friends and family and if all else fails, invite your S.O. to help you cook. Cooking together is a bonding experience for couples and a significant step in showing someone you love them. You got this!
5. Surprise Them With Fun Experiences
Some people love surprises, and other people hate surprises. But most people love being surprised, even just a little bit, by the person they love. Surprising someone can be as simple as picking them up and taking them to a park for a picnic or as lavish as buying tickets to their favorite sports event or concert.
Not sure which?
Keep reading to see the examples we’ve provided on some fun events you could plan!
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Surprise Parties: Who doesn’t love a party! Planning a surprise party for someone to show them how much you love them could be for any occasion. For example, work promotion, landing a new contract, moving into a new apartment, or for their birthday. Get some help from their friends, roommates, or family to get the names and numbers of everyone your loved one would want there.
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Concert Tickets: Perhaps they love Billy Joel or Elton Johan and would love to see them perform. Or maybe they would love to see a small local indie band. Whoever it is they want to see perform, they would love your surprise of the tickets and getting to go with you just as much!
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Sports Events: A great surprise would be tickets to root for their favorite sports team in person and with you! Maybe they’ve wanted to see their favorite team play yet haven’t had a chance to see them. So surprise them with tickets and watch their face light up! For your favorite sports fan, surprise tickets are a sure winner!
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Progressive Dinner: Progressive dinners with friends or a community event are a fun surprise because each dinner location has a different food course. Sometimes the menus and themes are shared, and sometimes they are not. Find one you think your loved one would like and sign up the two of you. Progressive dinners are always a fun experience because you get to make dinner a unique experience that both of you can enjoy!
6. Learn Their Love Language
It can sometimes be challenging to show someone how much we genuinely love them. However, there are many ways we can learn to recognize how our loved one prefers us to love them and how they perceive our love. One of the most common ways to understand your S.O.’s love language is by identifying one of Gary Chapman’s Five Love Languages.
These five love languages include quality time, physical touch, acts of service, words of affirmation, and receiving gifts. Each of us has our personalities, wants, needs, desires, and how we feel the most loved, so it’s natural to find out our partner’s likes and preferences.
Maybe to you, love looks like backrubs and foot massages, but your partner doesn’t seem to like them, and you’re confused as to you. Perhaps you love spending quality time with your loved ones, but your partner says they feel like you’ve been neglecting them. We tend to give the love we want to receive.
Which ultimately makes sense, right?
However, to truly show someone you love them, it could be helpful to learn their love language.
1. Quality Time
We’ve touched on paying attention to our loved ones to show we love them; however, this type of quality time is for people who only see “I love you” as your complete and total focus of your attention on them for a specified amount of time.
Nothing is a gesture of your love like two hours of telling you about the latest goal they’re trying to reach or having a meal together with no phones or other distractions. Nothing says I love you to them like making hot cocoa and sitting together having deep conversations with their favorite person.
Bonus points: Maintain eye contact when spending quality time together!
2. Physical Touch
You may be thinking, well, duh. But, of course, physical touch is one of the five languages! While physical connection and gestures are vital to a healthy, stable relationship, people whose love language is physical touch only see your love shown through physical displays of affection.
Suppose their love language is physical touch, then they would prefer to express their love for you and your expression of love for them through various forms of touch. It can be intimate and non-intimate such as holding hands while walking or having your arm around them at the movies. Making kisses a priority, such as giving good morning and goodnight kisses, is a great way to display your love.
3. Acts of Service
There’s an endless number of acts of service you can do for your partner. The love language of acts of service is doing something for them that they could do on their own, but you do for them instead to show them your love. Such as taking their car to get it washed, folding their laundry when it’s piled on their bed, or making them coffee or tea in the morning.
4. Words of Affirmation
Showing love through words of affirmation can be both in private with your partner and in front of other people in a public setting. Speake encouraging words that both uplift them. Express your appreciation of everything they do for you and your relationship and what makes you proud of them. However, you decide to express your words of affirmation, just make sure it’s genuine! Your partner can always tell otherwise.
5. Receiving Gifts
If your loved one’s love language is receiving gifts, there’s no need to worry about how much you need to spend or much you need to buy. They just want to see something tangible that shows you love them.
It could be a favorite movie on a streaming service or picking up a milkshake for them on the way home—anything to demonstrate that you love them, and you bought them a token of your love.
How Do I Show My Love for Someone if We Are Miles Apart in Distance?
So, now you may be saying, well, that’s great, but I’m in a long-distance relationship, and I don’t know how to show my S.O. how much I love them. It can be challenging to show someone you love them when they are miles apart, but not impossible!
Thanks to modern technology and our post-Pandemic world, it is easier than ever to show someone you love them when you are miles apart in the distance.
Keep reading to find out our favorite suggestions for showing someone you love them when you are long-distance!
1. Surprise Visits
Everyone loves a surprise visit from their favorite person! If possible, book a flight or take a car ride to surprise them at work or home one night. If you’re long-distance, surprising someone with a visit is one of the most exciting, unexpected joys of a relationship. Your partner or loved one is sure to know how much you love them if they open their door to see your face.
Always make sure you double-check they are available that day! Some rare times loved ones have planned surprise visits, and you wouldn’t want to find they had traveled to see you when you traveled to see them!
2. Send Snail Mail
In a long-distance relationship receiving a letter or a care package is a sure way to make someone smile for the rest of the day! Having loved ones live far away can be lonely and discouraging at times. That’s why it’s always a great way to show them how much you love them by sending reminders through the mail.
You don’t have to be a writer to mail your favorite people letters. Just write what you feel and how much you miss them. Also, you could send fun postcards from the city you’re living in – anything to show you love them and are thinking about them.
3. Randomly Send Them Gift Cards
As impersonal as it may seem, sending someone you love gift cards to their favorite restaurants and coffee shops is an excellent way for them to keep you on their mind while they pick up their morning cup of joe. If you know their favorite morning coffee shop or their favorite splurge restaurant, send them a gift card for them to enjoy themselves and show them a gesture of your love.
Often, we tend not to splurge on ourselves enough, or if we do, we feel guilty about it. But if our significant other sends us a gift card, then we’re going to enjoy ourselves! They’ll appreciate how much you paid attention to the details of their life and remembered their favorite places.
Be sure to send enough to bring their best bud or sibling, so they don’t have to eat alone!
4. Make Anniversaries Super Special
Being long-distance can make special events such as anniversaries lonely and challenging. But it doesn’t have to be that way! With a bit of creativity and a whole lot of love, just doing a few simple things on your anniversary can make it memorable for both of you.
For example, you could send an anniversary care package a few days ahead of time filled with goodies for the special day. Then, you could cook your favorite meal together over FaceTime and enjoy a romantic dinner. Then, stream a movie after dinner.
5. Find Ways To Switch Up Your Communication
Thanks to modern technology, we now have many ways to communicate with our loved ones over a long distance, from FaceTime, Texting, and social media apps such as Instagram. However, sometimes you need to switch up your current way of messaging.
Try the Lovebox messenger, a connected messaging device that goes beyond regular communication to show them how much you love them. You can choose your spinny for their box, and when it spins, it lets them know you have sent them a new message. We even have a Lovebox especially for lovers!
Summary
Whether your loved one is close by or long-distance, they are sure to love whatever way you choose to show your love. Paying attention, learning their love language, and switching up your communication are just a few of the ways to show your love. Whatever you choose, your loved ones will know you love them by your actions!
Sources:
7 Powerful Ways To Show You Love Someone | by Nathan Burriston | ILLUMINATION | Medium
How To Show Someone You Love Them Without Saying It | Elite Daily
10 Ways to Show Your Partner You're in Love | Psychology Today
