• Love & Relationships
• Happy Relationships

Are you meeting your partner’s emotional needs?

By Evelyn Odhiambo on

It’s great if you’re meeting your partner’s sexual needs. Have you thought about whether you’re meeting their emotional needs?

Happiness, sadness, love, hatred, fear, and courage are examples of emotions. These are strong feelings from within, and they can be expressed differently.

A need is something that one requires to lead a healthy life, this can also be availed in different ways. As human beings whether young or old, male, female or non-binary, tall or short, slender or plus size we all have emotional needs, which can be fulfilled in several approaches.

What are emotional Needs?

Emotional needs are feelings or conditions we need to feel happy, satisfied, or at peace.

They are things or situations that must be realized for one to have a happy and healthy living. People around you, especially your partner, play an important role in you realizing/ enjoying your emotional needs and vice versa.

People in relationships tend to have different ways they’d want their emotional needs satisfied. Emotional needs are in different categories:

1. Attention:

   This simply means having a genuine interest in your partner’s life. It can be expressed in different ways including paying keen attention when your partner is speaking and even putting your phone aside. Fulfilling this need for your partner is part of the growth of a relationship.

2. Meaning (purpose)

   Why am I here? This is the question that comes up in a relationship and if not clearly answered one get a sense of apathy (lack of interest) in it. You can help your partner gain sense of purpose by thinking together and identifying things that matter to them in your relationship and discuss how to protect or achieve them. This helps in sustaining relationships.

3. Sense of belonging

   Emotional feelings of loneliness kick in if a person doesn’t feel intimately connected, vulnerable, and accepted for who they are. Finding out the drivers of such feelings becomes the first step in building a sense of belonging. The most viable thing to do as a partner is strengthening conversations and building openness in the relationship. This emotional need plays an important role in keeping a healthy relationship.

4. Appreciation

   This is the feeling of being valued, you can help your partner’s emotional needs by a simple act of kindness which will go a long way in nourishing your relationship.

5. Affection

   Saying words like ‘I Love You’ is a way of fulfilling your partner’s emotional need, others may do that through acts such as touching or sexual intimacy. This continuously strengthens the bond and brings you as partners closer.

Meeting your partner’s emotional needs is not cast in stone, they’re unique, vary, and evolve. Find out what their needs one.

How do you satisfy your partner’s emotional needs?