Meet less for love

Sabrina Barr

Couples who have just started dating should reduce the amount of time they spend together, experts have claimed. In the early stages of a relationship, the excitement of seeing someone new can make you want to spend as much time with them as possible. However, this may not be advisable.

Scott Carroll, psychiatrist and author of Don't Settle: How to Marry the Man You Were Meant For, believes the key to a happy start to a relationship lies in seeing the other person as little as twice a week. “It’s important to stick to twice a week only so that you have plenty of time away from your new date to give your deepest feelings time to percolate up from your subconscious,” he told Bravo TV. “These feelings are important as they will help you see any issues or problems with your new love interest.” Dr Seth Meyers, a licenced clinical psychologist and author, recently wrote about how seeing a new romantic interest too frequently can negatively affect your relationship in the long run.

“As a psychologist who works with clients on relationship issues, I can share anecdotal information that one factor that ruins many relationships in the beginning is the tendency to rush things,” he wrote in Psychology Today.

Meyers explains how seeing a new partner all the time increases the desire to be physically and sexually intimate, which can put you at risk of experiencing intense emotions too quickly. “The problem with this dynamic is that seeing each other too frequently in the beginning forges an illusion of intimacy and dependence, even though each person does know that it takes months — or even years — to get to know someone.”

However, Meyers admits that if a couple is meant to stay together, seeing each other multiple times a week shouldn’t make a difference. — The Independent