We cannot freeze a relationship in a moment in time. Everything in the physical universe is constantly moving and changing. Similarly, stages and phases of relationships change. And it can be awkward to move from familiarity to degrees of unfamiliarity.
Sometimes familiarity is followed by stagnation in a relationship. When that's the case, it becomes necessary to improve the relationship for the better. But that can only happen if we change ourselves for the better as individuals. It will be necessary to work on ourselves, be vocal about our feelings, and ask our partner for things that he or she may be uncomfortable giving us.
It will be necessary to learn how to engage in conflict resolution if we don't already know how to do so. Conflict runs very deep in many couples. Sometimes that's because of incompatibility, but more often than not it's because as humans we are complicated, difficult, and unconscious creatures. We are driven by behavior that originates in our subconscious minds.
If we're not trained psychologists, it can be very difficult to recognize and correct inappropriate subconscious behavior. It can be time-consuming, boring, and frustrating as well. But we must do the work. We must because when we make it through to the other side we will form a much deeper connection with our partner.
If we work to improve ourselves mentally, emotionally, and psychologically it will in turn improve our relationships tremendously. In large part that will be because we will not be depending on our partner to do work that we should be doing on ourselves. We will love our partner for deeper and deeper reasons. Rather than just loving our projection of our partner as someone who meets our needs, we will love our actual partner for who they really are. When we do, our relationship will be characterized by one of sharing, caring, emotional support, and incredibly satisfying intimacy.