Building Intimacy in Marriage
If you’re married or in a committed relationship, building intimacy is essential to maintaining a healthy bond between you and your partner. Intimacy is more than just sex or physical touch; it’s about building a deep emotional connection with your partner that facilitates the sharing of deepest thoughts, feelings, and true selves.
Couple Exercises for Intimacy
Here are some couple exercises that can help you build intimacy:
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Cuddling
Cuddling is a simple, yet powerful exercise that helps to build intimacy between partners. Whether you wrap your arms around each other while watching TV or while sleeping, the intimate physical touch helps in releasing ‘positive hormones’ such as oxytocin, which promote bonding.
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Deep Breathing
Intimate breathing exercises consist of deep breathing exercises in sync with each other’s breathing pattern. This brings couples closer together and helps to promote a feeling of relaxation and calmness.
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Soul Gazing
This activity is an intense, prolonged eye contact between intimate partners for increasing depth of connection and feeling vulnerability.
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Active Listening
Active listening refers to truly hearing and responding to what your partner is saying by putting your full attention on them.
Active listening is a powerful tool for building intimacy in your relationship.
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Communication
Communication is a key element to building intimacy.
Sharing your thoughts, feelings, and dreams with your partner will help build a deep emotional bond between the two of you.
Bedtime Routines for Better Intimacy
Before you snuggle your partner in bed every night, create a phone-free bedtime routine to aid in a closer connection. Here are some things to consider that can help:
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Phone-Free Bedtime
The first step to good sleep hygiene and physical intimacy is to keep your phones at bay.
Drowning ourselves in phones before bed doesn’t allow us to fully disconnect from daytime stresses. The blue light from phones also interferes with our sleep cycle.
Keeping a phone-free approach helps in developing a relaxing and intimate bedtime routine.
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Connection
Take some time to connect with your partner.
A conversation about your day, plans, or even intimate desires can help to strengthen the bond between you two. Talk to each other about your future aspirations and goals, and reflect on the highlights of your day.
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Fragrant Candles
Setting the mood with your favorite scented candles can set the tone for a relaxing and cozy bedtime.
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Sleeping Naked
Some couples who sleep naked report that it helps increase intimacy by promoting skin-to-skin contact leading to production of ‘feel-good hormones’ like Oxytocin in the body.
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Massages
Another way to build intimacy is through massage. Massages promote relaxation and connection, making them a perfect addition to your bedtime routine.
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Gratitude
Before closing your eyes, take the time to express your gratitude towards each other. Appreciate each other’s efforts throughout the day, quality time spent, or memories created.
Gratitude helps in creating an environment of positivity and nurturing.
Recommitting to Physical Intimacy
Physical intimacy is an essential component of any relationship. Sometimes, however, physical intimacy can take a backseat as the demands of daily life take over.
Some ways you can recommit to physical intimacy include:
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Sex
Regular sex has various benefits, including the release of oxytocin, the hormone that leads to increased bonding, reduced stress levels, and better sleep.
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Exploration
Trying new things with your partner can help rekindle the spark.
Communicating with each other and discussing what you would like to try and what you don’t can create a sense of openness and fuel desire.
In conclusion, building intimacy can be a process. However, investing time and effort into building and maintaining intimacy in your marriage or committed relationship can help you lead a more happy and fulfilling life. To build a strong bond, consider trying some of the above couple exercises, creating a phone-free bedtime routine, and recommitting to physical intimacy.
Remember, intimacy takes patience and effort, but the payoff is priceless.
The Benefits of Couple Exercises for Intimacy
True love is a beautiful thing, but love alone cannot sustain a relationship. Relationships take work, and one of the most important aspects of that work is building intimacy with your partner.
Intimacy is not limited to physical touch; it encompasses various forms such as emotional, mental, and spiritual intimacy. Here are some of the benefits of couple exercises for building intimacy in each area:
Physical Intimacy
Physical intimacy is often the first thing that comes to mind when people think of intimacy. However, it’s important to remember physical intimacy is more than just sex.
Physical intimacy includes any physical contact, such as hugging and holding hands. Couple exercises can build a stronger physical bond between partners, leading to an overall improvement in the relationship.
Some activities for building physical intimacy include:
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Couple Exercises
Couple exercises that involve touch, such as extra-long cuddles, can promote physical affection and bonding. Holding each other tight for a prolonged period of time can release oxytocin, the hormone that leads to increased bonding and intimacy.
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Breathing Connection
Engaging in deep breathing exercises in sync with your partner’s breathing pattern can be an excellent way to connect with your partner. This can help both partners to feel more relaxed and to focus on the moment, leading to a more intimate experience.
Mental Intimacy
Mental intimacy refers to the intellectual bond between partners. It takes effort to build mental intimacy, but the results can be rewarding.
Engaging in shared activities and meaningful conversation can help to foster a deeper connection. Some activities for building mental intimacy include:
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Soul Gaze
Based on ancient Tantric traditions, soul gazing involves looking into your partner’s eyes for a prolonged period of time.
This activity allows you to feel more connected and vulnerable with your partner, creating a strong bond between you two.
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Three Things
This activity involves each partner sharing three things that happened to them during the day, along with how those events made them feel.
Sharing life experiences and emotions is a great way to build mental intimacy.
Emotional Intimacy
Emotional intimacy refers to the bond created by sharing your deepest emotions with your partner. This can be more difficult for some couples than others, given the vulnerability required.
However, building emotional intimacy is essential to maintaining a healthy relationship. Some activities for building emotional intimacy include:
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Active Listening
Truly listening to your partner without interruption or judgment can create a stronger emotional bond.
Active listening involves giving your full attention to your partner and responding in a supportive manner.
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Intimacy Games
Games such as “The Love Map” and “The Appreciation Game” can be effective methods for building emotional intimacy.
These activities involve asking and answering deep questions about each other, deepening the understanding and emotional connection between you and your partner.
Spiritual Intimacy
Spiritual intimacy refers to your shared sense of meaning and purpose in life. Spiritual intimacy can be enhanced for couples by engaging in activities that create a deeper sense of connection and shared experience.
Some activities for building spiritual intimacy include:
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Meditation or Prayer
Engaging in meditation or prayer together can create a sense of oneness that fosters spiritual intimacy. This activity involves sitting down together and focusing on your breath or spiritual intention, helping to create a peaceful environment.
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Sharing Values
Discussing your values and beliefs with your partner can create a deeper spiritual connection. By engaging in these types of discussions, you can better understand each other’s perspectives, creating a sense of shared values and purpose.
In conclusion, building intimacy is an important part of any healthy relationship, and engaging in couple exercises can help build a stronger bond between partners. Activities that promote physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual intimacy can help couples to feel more connected and fulfilled in their relationship.
Whether it’s holding each other close, engaging in meaningful conversation or engaging in shared activities, there are countless ways to build intimacy with your partner. Incorporating some of these exercises into your routine can help you and your partner grow closer and maintain a fulfilling relationship.
Building intimacy in a relationship takes work and effort from both partners. Intimacy can manifest itself as physical touch, emotional connection, mental bond, and spiritual oneness between couples.
By engaging in exercises such as soul gazing, active listening, and breathing connection, couples can take proactive steps to deepen their relationship and foster intimacy. Building intimacy allows couples to truly understand each other, share their fears, desires, challenges, and dreams and grow stronger together.
This daily investment of time and commitment in each other has numerous benefits and is an integral part of any healthy relationship. By incorporating these exercises into your routine, you can strengthen your relationship and foster a deep emotional and spiritual bond with your partner that will last a lifetime.
