Well hello to you my reader chums! Being in a relationship is an incredible feeling and experience. I love being in love and how love makes me feel. There's nothing more wonderful than living and doing life with my best friend, knowing I have a safe space to be at home with every day, holiday with, and enjoy life's little moments.

With relationships, life changes positively, but it also means you have a lot less time to yourself than you did when you were single because you want to spend as much time as possible with your other half. However, alone time is always beneficial, especially when you have less time because it helps you pursue your own hobbies and interests and be with your own thoughts.

If you're in a new relationship and keen to prioritise more alone time, here are my tips on how you can have more alone time in a relationship.

Communicate what alone time looks like for you

Every person has different definitions of what alone time means to them, whether that's an hour in the morning or an afternoon. As we can all differ from introverts and extroverts, alone time may be needed more regularly for some than others. Communicate to your partner what alone time looks like for you and how you can map that out in your routine weekly and monthly. This can help you plan in advance and for your partner to understand your expectations and needs. 

Likewise, you'll also want to ask what alone time means for them, as they may have more or less of a need than you. Once you both know where you stand, it can help strengthen your relationship because you'll be helping each other grow individually and together. 

Have a 'you' morning/afternoon or day each week

Communicating how often alone time is needed is the first step to pursuing alone time in your relationship. You can decide which days are suitable for you. For example, if you're a morning person, you may want to go to an early pilates class, sit in a coffee shop and read or take a beach walk. Or, if you're an afternoon person, you could go for a run, do some shopping or an activity that makes your heart soar. Whatever the timing is right for you, book this regularly once a week and spend that alone time however you wish.

Pursue hobbies and interests that are yours

Everyone has hobbies and interests they love, whether it's going to a book club or dance class, cycling, knitting, painting, baking or playing guitar. Whatever your hobbies and interests are, don't give that up when you get into a relationship, in fact, it's more important now than ever to pursue these hobbies and to give yourself time to grow in your own skills and interests. 

Take regular solo walks

I love a walk, in fact, the most time I spend alone is when I'm walking around, whether that's to run errands, walk to coworking, or because I fancied a beach stroll. Regular solo walks allow you to be with your thoughts, reflect on any emotions and feelings you're experiencing and listen to things you like, such as podcasts, audiobooks or music.

Have some friendships separate 

In a relationship, you're bound to have friendships that overlap or make new friends together and that's amazing and something to be celebrated. However, not all of your friends need to be shared. You need to have time alone to spend with your own friends as it gives you that healthy space to develop platonic friendships with others - and enjoy the friendships you had before you were in the relationship. These friendships should still be a priority in your life.

I hope you enjoyed this post. What other tips do you have?

Thank you for reading <3