How to Fall in Love with Your Best Friend

We’ve all had that happily ever after dream—complete with a “happily ever after” with someone we’re incredibly close to. We live life, enjoy our time with our best friend, and without realizing it, it evolves; it moves from friendship to that romantic ideal. Almost like a fairytale, many of us have experienced this unspoken transition at least once in our life but often find ourselves not knowing what to do or how to go about navigating the complexities of falling in love with your closest companion.

Falling in love with a best friend is potentially a beautiful, yet quite complicated, journey. On the one hand, it can provide a level of emotional comfort not found in consorting with a stranger. The person you are in love with already knows you well and cares deeply for you, so the idea of love is already built upon trust and understanding. On the other hand, the thought of crossing the line between friendship and love—and messing up that long-established relationship, is more than intimidating.

It takes introspection and recognition of the potential of a relationship, as well as honest communication and mutual understanding, to navigate successfully from best friends to lovers. It’s natural to feel a bit nervous when sharing your feelings, so if you’re taking the plunge and ready to talk to your best friend about romance, focus on the positive, rather than the possible deceit. Try to remain calm and collected, you need to bear in mind that opening up about your true feelings might only result in your friendship deepening.

When attempting to take your friendship to a further stage, it's important to bear in mind that even if it feels right, that doesn't mean that it necessarily has to move beyond the boundaries of friendship. In order to keep the respect and trust in your relationship alive, it's important to be accepting of whatever decision your best friend makes. Acknowledging their feelings while also being honest and truthful with your own, is the key to striving forward, and the only way to ensure that the relationship remains healthy, regardless of the outcome.

Yet, when it comes to making a romantic connection, the most important aspect that needs to be accounted for – is timing. Especially, in cases where both parties have known each for some time, there may be issues of expectations, pre-conceived notions, and assumptions that need to be negotiated before leaping into the romantic unknown. 'Timing is everything' really applies in this situation, if you come off too strong, then it could ruin your chance completely, but if its done too soon, then the consequences of building a relationship could be far-reaching.

At the same time, another complication that frequently arises in the transition from best friends to lovers, is the reality of jealousy. It’s true that prior to becoming lovers, you shared a life and times together fairly equally, with no real concern over how much time was spent with another. But now that the level of comfort, security and passion shared by two people is heightened, the risk of jealousy can rise as well, resulting in arguments, hurt feelings and broken hearts. So, in order to prevent any such heartache and maintain your relationship, it’s essential to develop open communication.

It's impossible to predict the future of any relationship despite the degree of comfort of closeness in the present. Thus, if two people are secretly harboring feelings for each other, they should consider the risks and rewards before they decide to make the leap from best friends to romantic lovers. It might sound overwhelming to consider, but by taking the time to consider if this is truly the life that you both want for yourselves, the voyage from best friends to lovers has more chances to prove successful, albeit complex.