The Best Way To Take Your First Dates To The Next Level

There are few situations more nerve-wracking than a first date. Unless you have an obscenely high amount of confidence, being vulnerable with a stranger in a romantic context is far from easy. While you want to captivate your date, the nerves you experience on a first date can lead you to do some not-so-charming things, like fill the silences with awkwardly intimate tales about your mom or ex-boyfriend.

Before the date even begins, there are several ways to keep those nerves at bay. The best way to combat first-date nerves is by simply moving your body. As dating coaches Lindsay Chrisler and Donna Barnes told Refinery29, anything from a workout class to yoga or simply dancing around in your apartment can help relieve your anxiety before the big date. Don't have time to move your body before the date? Chrisler suggests setting an intention before you step out of the door. "Pause outside the door or as you're getting ready, close your eyes, take a deep breath, and say to yourself, 'My intention is to ______,' and fill in the blank," Chrisler told Refinery29.

Apart from picking out the perfect restaurant and wearing an outfit that makes you feel confident, one dating expert says that your energy can actually dictate just how well your first date goes.

Dating is difficult. Especially if you seem to be in a dating rut, bringing a certain amount of energy to a first date can be quite challenging. However, according to dating expert Matthew Hussey, making a conscious effort to bring a heightened energy is one of the keys to ensuring that your first date is a success. "I'm going to give everyone I interact with an amount of energy I don't mind losing," Hussey said in a video posted on his Tik Tok. "They might be jolted out of their little coma that they've been in because they're disillusioned with dating ... They felt like no one was trying and so they went into their shell, but now they see you with a different level of warmth, playfulness, and positivity. And they go, 'Huh, who is this? This makes me feel good.' And they come out a little bit and all of a sudden you see who they are. You wake them up a little bit."

According to Bustle, there are quite a few ways to project positive energy. These ways include keeping your posture open (your date will definitely be reading into your body language anyway), dishing out the compliments, and setting positive intentions before the date even begins.