The 2014 New Year rolled in and hopefully you enjoyed all the Family time, grazing on delicious meals, decedent deserts, and fun conversations.
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As a kid, and to this day I’ve always looked forward to this festive time of year celebrating Christmas and New Years with friends and family. I remember those chocolate gift baskets with the wide variety of goodies and perfectly aligned presentations. Some of them tasted a lot better than others.
As I’ve matured, I can’t say I still love those Whitmans milk chocolates. Maybe its a sign of maturity or just changing tastes. Now I love those Godiva Chocolate Truffles and actually asked from them as a gift, receiving two Godiva Chocolate Truffles from my significant other 🙂
Have you heard those phrases…
The only constant in life is change?
Chance Favors the prepared mind?
So just like my chocolate tastes have changed what has changed for you and your significant other this last year?
Has the daily grind made everyday life with your significant other less satisfying?
Have you made any resolutions for this New Year?
Watch this video above and sign up for our series of free Love Coupons.
Yep, when you are planning your daily or weekly routine, make sure you include date night time and
start rekindling that flame by printing out one of these Love Coupons.
Our Love Coupons are a great way to spice things up & get it moving again.
The promise of yoga is to unite your finite self with the Infinite Self. There’s no better way to enhance that journey than to practice yoga with your partner or yoga for couples. Sexuality and spirituality are not mutually exclusive. In fact, the ancient yogis understood that a worshipful attitude towards your partner created a neuro-chemical change in the brain that allowed for the experience of ecstasy and bliss in couples meditation and couples yoga.
Meditation is a very private, internal experience that a person has with his or her inner Self. It is an important technique in the quest for a sacred sexual relationship. Meditation improves self-esteem and heals individual wounds, allowing the development of self-awareness that can lead to a heart-centered opening in the love relationship with one’s self or one’s partner. Meditation also connects one to one’s soul and balances the female and male energies in the body. Certain meditations can enhance the feeling of ecstasy experienced during sex. Other meditations have been known to end arguments, get rid of grudges and clear the clouds between couples. Couples Yoga uses a variety of sacred yogic meditations for couples as a way to augment the experience of oneness. These couples’ meditations are an especially beautiful practice that can elevate your relationship to a higher level.
1. Can couples yoga foster romance?
If you begin a couples yoga class with an existing partner, talk with each other before going to the first class about what you want from this. Try not to let your expectations get overblown in terms of how the class can remedy any specific relationship challenges you’re having. Go in with an open mind and heart — not with a sense that this is going to fix something, but a willingness to learn and grow together by sharing and connecting through yoga. It can be sensual though, if practiced with loving intention and can secretly set the mood. If the low lighting and candles — two things that most yoga masters recommend to help de-stress while doing yoga — don’t help set the tone, doing yoga together allows you to perform partner-assisted poses. These types of postures require a partner to help the other person get a full stretch or just get into position. Having to focus on your partner’s body, plus all that extra touching, lets you be playful as you exercise together
Spirituality Merge in Yoga Poses and Couples Meditation
2. What is the purpose of specific moves?
The first part of the class is a time to ground, center, learn to synchronize energy and breath and become sensitive to your partner’s rythms as well as start to gently warm up the body. The second part of the class is a time to build up more heat in the body with some balancing poses that challenge somewhat as well. As partners are able to get into more difficult poses, this builds self-esteem, confidence, emotional mastery, focus and this can heighten the bond as well. Some of the poses are aesthetically wondrous when you are juxtaposing bodies or mirroring. Some poses are childlike and playful and bring you back to a place of wonder and innocence. The last part of the class is both restorative with poses that you melt into in order to rebalance the central nervous system or there is guided Thai massage where intention, rather than technique is emphasized. The last pose is “Corpse” pose where student are able to integrate and process all the deep work and the body can reset itself from a place of renewal and rejuvenation.
3. How does yoga for couples allow one to experience another?
It makes you more attractive. This may not seem important, but the truth is, the more thoughtful and focused on your partner you are, the more endearing you will seem to her or him. . That’s because anytime a person expresses genuine interest in someone else and committed to just being physically and emotionally present — you will feel a sense of safety and support on a purely kinesthetic level. When you experience a profound truth through the experience of the body, it becomes ingrained in your mind and heart as well. Without realizing it, simply committing time to doing yoga with your partner becomes an opportunity to strengthen your level of intimacy — something that always adds strength and solidity to any partnership. It can reveal interpersonal dynamics about the couples that lead to inner growth and intimacy. Learning how to become really attune to your inner world while simultaneously being totally present to your partner is not a gift we often receive.
4. What are we meant to experience?
As each participant learns to let go and trust, the partners begins to explore spiritual levels of the practice together. They build on the energy of each other and create a better understanding of their connection as well as the practice of yoga. It removes distractions that keep humans from focusing on each other.
Women are commonly known to be givers. We give of ourselves to our kids, spouses, and friends. Between ferrying kids to and from soccer games, cooking, cleaning, providing a shoulder to cry on, and trying to look great doing it all, the stress creeps up on us. If the cracks are beginning to show and you feel you need some alone time, try these ideas.
Have more play dates
Who says play dates have to be organized and that you have to spend the entire time chatting with the other mom? A trip to a popular park with a jungle gym is a good way to get your kids to learn to socialize with kids they don’t know. And it’s the perfect time for you to sit alone on the bench with your favorite guilty read. Read on your tablet and no one will know you’re actually enjoying Fifty Shades of Grey. A simple cup of tea works wonders to relax us.
Take tea breaks
Unlike coffee, which Dunkin Donuts promises was made to drink on the run, tea was meant to be savored and sipped. Keep the kettle warm and make yourself a cup of tea whenever you feel stressed or frazzled. Then force yourself to stop doing whatever you were doing and find a quiet spot to enjoy it. Some teas that induce relaxation are chamomile and jasmine.
Travel more
It seems like we have been conditioned to hurry around and get to places as soon as possible. We time our schedules so that we have just enough time to arrive at our jobs, sporting events, and homes in order not to be late. Why? Why not take your time and sneak in some alone time by changing your mindset? The next time you have someplace to be, leave early – maybe an extra half hour or even 20 minutes. Then you can just meander your way there, spending time with your thoughts as you drive along. Consider taking back roads instead of hopping on the expressway. Your car is the perfect quiet place to spend some time alone. Even a park bench can provide respite from a difficult day.
Play possum
Before bed is an ideal time to get peace and quiet. Tonight, about an hour before your usual time, announce that you’re tired and going to go to sleep. This doesn’t mean you have to sleep. Take that extra hour to sprawl in bed unencumbered. Practice your crocheting skills, yoga poses, or try out that new green facial mask your husband begged you not to use. No one has to know you’ve not actually gone to bed yet.
Walk it in
People don’t walk enough in this country. Yes, you see them walking for exercise or powerwalking down the sidewalks at lunchtime, but none of them are actually going anywhere. Walking is an optimum time to be alone. Think about the places you go. To the bank? The post office? Can you
walk there instead of driving? It will take you at least three times as long, and the time spent alone will do your head good. If you lose weight doing it, so be it. Strictly speaking, women shouldn’t have to sneak around trying to get alone time. But the truth is, sometimes others don’t understand that asking to be alone isn’t meant as a snub against them. It actually makes us better able to care for the people we love. Having alone time to center ourselves and rejuvenate is critical to our very survival. Beginning today, make taking care of yourself a top priority.
Kate Supino is a professional freelance writer and small business owner who writes extensively about best business practices including online reputation issues and finance management.
When’s the last time you both got together for a date night?
Let’s see how much time it takes for you to remember?
2 seconds
5 seconds
10 seconds
15 seconds
Whoa,
If you had to think about it for more than that…its been WAY TOO LONG.
Don’t worry about it too much, we have a fun suprise for you that will keep coming to your inbox every few weeks.
What’s that?
We call them Love Coupons, sometimes Love Vouchers. We started handing these out after our Couples Yoga classes last year and everyone loved them. Our Couples Yoga classes will start up again after Summer, but we didn’t want to wait that long to share this fun gift. It’s so easy to get caught up in the day-to-day routine, that many people forget to about the most important person in their lives.
We’ve included a small gallery of what they look like below and a link to sign-up for our Love Coupons newsletter series. You’ll get a new one every three weeks or so, which is a good clue that, its time for another fun, romantic date-night!
Intimacy Ideas for Couples – Yoga – Doing It Together
Partner Yoga – Doing It Together
Intimacy – Into Me You See
If your couch is starting to get a permanent imprint from you sitting there it may be time to mix things up with a buoyant and bonding couple yoga session. With all the date night activities out there, most of them involve the two of you watching some kind of performance, often in the dark where the two of you are not interacting and not focused on each other for most of the evening.
Other date night activities can often be in crowded noisy places such as bar or concert which makes it harder to hear and focus on each other. Even just going out to a restaurant you often get interrupted many times by the waiter asking for your order (I don’t know about you but it always irritates me when I am in the midst of an in-depth topic and the waiter just butts in asking if we want to get a drink instead of pausing a few moments to and giving us some space to conclude our sentence or conversation.
My hottie, hellenic, hubby and I started practicing partner yoga, our sessions would be mixed with poses that were strengthening, restorative, balancing, silly, and challenging. We would often just experiment with movement and shapes and create or modify traditional poses. We find that the practice, helps to balance out upsets and disagreements that we had earlier in the week. All those times that you wanted to whack your partner across the head with a frying pan, start to dissolve in a practice that is about supporting, nurturing and soothing and finding intimacy for each other.
Here are some tips on how to be a good yoga partner.
Practicing Yoga Together – Intimacy Ideas for Couples
Hygiene – Before your practice, you should be clean and brush your teeth. How fun is it to grab someone’s arm that is sticky and sweaty or hold someone’s foot that smells like the ebola? Since you will be in close proximity to your partner, skip the tuna fish sandwich with extra onions right before your practice also.
Limitations – If one of you is much more athletic or flexible than the other then don’t expect your partner to be able to do some of the balancing poses or to be able to get their foot behind their head.
Distractions – Send the kids to grandma’s, turn off your Iphone (even if it vibrates every time you get a text that is going to take your focus off your partner)
Size – If there is a big different in height and weight you won’t be perfectly symmetrical in many of the poses and feet, arms and hands won’t always line up as you might want. For the weight-bearing poses, where you are putting your partner’s weight on top of yours ( such as a hand-stand on top of your partner’s downdog) For some of the other balancing poses where you are leaning back, the heavier partner should let the lighter partner lean back first to not throw them off balance.
Acceptance – Are you able to let go of the need to do the pose just like on the cover of Yoga Journal? Can you be accepting of your partner’s inability to do the full expression of the pose.
Synchronicity – Yoga is not just about stretching…otherwise it’s just calisthenics. Put more emphasis on coordinating the rise and fall of your breath with your partner, especially in the seated poses and you will feel more in sync with them.
Non-Verbal Communication – Some of the poses you will be back to back and if you have some discomfort and you need to readjust and don’t want to have to talk to loudly in the session, you can tap your fingers on them or squeeze their hand to let them know that something needs to be altered in the pose.
Intimacy Ideas for Couples – Practicing Yoga Together
Partner Yoga For Couples at a Retreat Center near Philadelphia in West Chester
The past few Valentine’s day weekend, we decided to host a partner yoga for couples workshop at a retreat center near Philadelphia in West Chester called Temenos, which is about 40 minutes outside of the city. We were looking for a retreat space that was small, intimate and cozy since we didn’t want it to be a huge group. Partner yoga for couples is a very bonding and buoyant practice and it works well whether you are very athletic and a seasoned yoga practitioner or if you are out of shape or limited with injuries.
I am always pleasantly surprised by who shows up for our classes. When we first started to have our events, I thought it would be hippie, crunchy people that were really into the yoga lifestyle that would show up. I thought it would be people that attended yoga classes on a regular basis or people that had a regular spiritual practice such as Qigong or meditation. Instead, I find people that are more often than not without a regular practice and want to explore their spirituality and connect with their significant other as well.
We aim to present our classes and workshops as welcoming to yoga newbies ( or yoga virgins as we call them) and encourage beginners and the stiff and inflexible to come to our events. Some people, especially the guys, are a little intimidated and scared of yoga. They worry that they are going to end up wearing a loincloth or having to attempt to contort their bodies into ridiculous position a la Cirque Du Soleil.
We have had quite an array or people come into the class. We have had military guys, IT guys, a professional football player, construction guys, doctors, nurses and a few yoga teachers as well.
Instead, we start off each class with a grounding and centering exercise where we establish some communications guidelines and go over boundaries and pushing into other past our limits of comfort and flexibility. Then the next part of the retreat, we start to do some simple movements while seated on the floor. It’s usually a simple movement such as raising your arms together in devotion and then your hands our coming back in tandem together. I like to start off with a very simple pose so that it puts everyone at ease.
Often the next move after this is something that will make people laugh and giggle such as bicycle so that people can start warming up their bodies. We encourage people to be playful and creative with this movement and since their toes our interlocking at this point we encourage people to “make-out with their toes” so that people can start to feel more romantic towards each other.
We then usually go into more challenging poses which are some standing poses. Depending on how athletic the group is, we might do a more challenging pose which requires more core strength and flexibility. The couples are often a bit anxious on some of the balancing poses, especially those that are weight bearing and you are trusting your partner to hold all of your weight and not let you fall on the floor. This part of the class produces some adrenaline and confidence. Having a bit of danger and adventure for a couples help to heighten sexual arousal so we always include a bit of this.
Couples Yoga Moves for Beginners or Seasoned Yogis
Then we have a transitional restorative pose to help calm everyone and have them drop down into a more tranquil space. After the restorative pose, we go into the massage part of the class. The massage part of the class is more about intention and we don’t emphasize technique or skill so much.
After the massage part we have a nice juicy-spooning and cuddling shavasana and then we close the class and everyone usually is completely blissed out at this point. We send our students off and encourage them to have wine, herbal tea, soft music and candles so they can start in this peaceful state. Some people say it is like a tantra workshop but we don’t use that word to describe it since it has such a negative connotation these days and don’t want people to get the wrong idea.
