Finding love and maintaining a healthy relationship can be challenging for anyone. Experts say that you need a balance of love, patience, and self-esteem to really make it. Even just one partner's efforts can make a big difference in the success of a relationship. By focusing on these ten elements, your relationship is sure to thrive for years to come.

HONESTY
Honesty is one of the most basic of all elements of a healthy relationship. A deep and loving honesty between two people says, "No matter what happens, you will always know the true me." This feeling allows couples to open up and be the best they can be with each other.

FORGIVENESS
Couples, who can't make up, will break up. As simple as this sounds, without forgiveness in a relationship, old hurts often resurface and neitherperson is truly able to let go of the past.

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION
Couples need to learn how to talk through both easy and challenging issues. Disagreements are a part of every relationship. to get through them, partners have to learn to respect their different ways of communicating and "walk in their partner's shoes". This means learning how to communicate love in a way that your partner hears and feels it.

TRUST
Trust is like honesty - it deepens over time. Couples who truly each other don't have to deal with insecurities between each other. They're able to speak freely, and be themselves, knowing that their partner loves them for it.

TIME APART
Couples have to spend time away from each other. Being inseperable in the early phases of a relationship is normal, but over time , the two members of the couple should develop different interests and habits in order to have continued interest in the relationship.

FRIENDSHIP
Couples need to be friend as well as lovers. When the passion wanes, it is the deep friendship that keeps people together. Couples who remain successfully married for many years invariably say it is that friendship that keeps them together.

MONOGAMY
Monogamy is one of the founding elements of all marriages, You can's have trust and honesty without it.

SIMILAR VALUES
This means that when you make major decisions in life you two fall close to the same line. You may disagree about some issues, like politics, but the couples that are the happiest agree about the big subjects like money and how to raise children.

PATIENCE
If you can deal with your partner's issues and his/her imperfections with patience, your bond will make it through the rough times. Marriages don't end because there are problems; they end because people quit trying to work those problems our !

PASSION
Couples who have passion for each other can sustain their love over time. While this may ebb and flow over time, the genuine passion for each other is at the heart of all lasting relationship.

Remember, a little attention to your relationship each day is what makes all the different !