What are ice-breaker questions and conversation topics for new engaged couples that they should ask each other?
After all the googley eyes, cooing, cudding, smooching, incessant texting did you ask more incisive questions about their beliefs, values about topics such as in-laws, finances, how to vacation, savings, thoughts about what religion to raise your kids, how to educate your kids and if you wanted to live in the city, the suburbs or the countryside?
You are probably aware that in many countries of the world engaged couples don’t really know each other before they get married. Well, that actually happens in every country.
Ice Breaker Questions and Conversation Topics for Engaged Couples
I’ve known men and women who “dated” for 6, 12 or even 24 months who were surprised at whom the person they married really was. A woman told me that after she was married for a couple of months, she found out her husband hated kids. A man wrote to me to say that he discovered several years into his marriage that his wife had been in prison.
Ice Breaker Questions and Conversation Topics for Engaged Couples
Other men and women have been shocked to learn what their mate thought about sex, religion, careers, household work, money and the future. In fact, many of these differences have led couples to divorce court.
I believe a lot less couples would get divorced (or even not marry each other in the first place) if they actually knew each other well enough before they got married by asking ice breaker questions and engaging in these personal conversation topics. Engaged couples could cut down on a lot of their clashes if they knew more about their mate’s thoughts, beliefs and emotions. The best way to get to really know someone is with ice breaker questions about their values, beliefs and lifestyle choices.
Whether you have been dating for 5 months or have been married for 500 months, you absolutely must know your beloved’s answers to these questions
You need to use a certain amount of wisdom with these 1,000 questions. Someone who has just begun dating shouldn’t accelerate the relationship by starting off with questions on marriage and sex. If you don’t think you and your partner are quite ready to commit to one another, it would be best to start off with the questions on personality, your past experiences, favorites and perhaps pets. The best relationships are built on a solid friendship, so first address the questions that will help build that base.
Some people will want to answer four or five ice breaker questions in a sitting. Others might like to spend several hours and answer 50 or more. Some people will want to put the questions in letters and mail them to each other on the same day so their answers don’t influence each other’s. Those with computers might find email to be a good way to get to know each other (and even keep the emails for future reference).
Do not avoid certain conversation topics just because you find them uncomfortable or even embarrassing. Break down that communication barrier and learn to talk about those issues with your partner. If someone is unwilling to talk about certain issues, it should throw up a flag for potential problems down the road.
If you don’t think a question applies to you, ask it anyway. Your partner might have some interesting thoughts on the matter. What are some of the probing questions for engaged couples that I really like? Out of the 1,000 questions just will give you a little taste.
Do you have a role model in your profession? What about them do you admire?
Do you screen phone calls before answering the phone? Can you let the phone ring during meals or when company is over or do you feel compelled to always answer it?
How long do you usually take to get ready in the morning?
Would you rather live modestly and retire modestly at 50, or would you rather live more extravagantly and retire modestly at 65?
If I were really bothered about you sharing our fights/disagreements with your friends and family, would you agree not to do it? Or would you agree to discuss it with them only if we couldn’t solve the problem on our own within a couple of days?
What are the pros for eloping? What are the cons? Does it sound appealing to you?
Are there any scents that turn you on?
1,000 Questions for Couples before saying ” I do”
Does a person’s sexual past matter if you really love them?
What do you think is the best way for couples to handle disagreements?
If the doctors detected that your unborn child had a severe birth defect and they could easily abort it, would you still have the baby?
Have you given any thought to how you would want to discipline your children during early childhood, adolescent years and the teen years?
What did your previous partners complain most about you?
Is there anything that you constantly worry about?
If someone tells you a juicy tidbit about a friend or coworker, do you have difficulty keeping it to yourself? Do you ever tell people they shouldn’t gossip?
If you were paid a salary to work for any one charity for an entire year, which charity would you choose?
We usually start the class with a grounding meditation and some simple warm-ups. We focus on breath, gratitude and intention in the beginning of class and I lay out a few
guidelines for not pushing yourself or your part past their physical limits. The second part of the class, we do some more active poses, some balancing poses and some traditional and classic yoga poses but that are done with a partner so even people that have done yoga hundreds of times before will come into a familiar pose in an entirely familiar way. Then I will have a transitional pose that is more restorative or an inversion so people can start to drop down into the deeper part of the practice.
Then we will move into the massage-y part of the class. At this point the lights are pretty low. I like to keep the lights low during the part of class so that people do not feel like they are on display and it feels more intimate. We emphasize intention and not techniques or skills. I also encourage a lot of checking in on how the pressure is and to notice their partner’s breathing…it should be slow and rhythmic.
If their partner has fallen asleep then that means the massage giver is doing a really great job. After both partners have gotten a massage then we move into our final relaxation pose. Instead of it being a traditional relaxation I encourage silent cuddling and spooning.
We stay here for about ten minutes, usually my own partner has fallen asleep and is snoring at this point… occasionally I have to scratch his head or his fingers to gently rouse him without startling him. I then start to gently bring the room back to groundedness. At this point, everyone is feeling so relaxed and connected that I keep the light fairly low so it feels intimate and private.
Before I close the class, I encourage people to linger and to just be focused on their partner and not the other couples and to not worry about taking direction from us once the class has closed. At this point, most of the couples are wrapped in a loving embrace. Sometimes, the emotion and love in the room is so strong that it moves me to tears and I feel my eyes starting to well up. This doesn’t usually happen and I do my best to regain my composure when it does.
As the leisurely start to clean up their belongings then we check in with them and encourage them to continue this connectedness with candles, wine, soft music at home…. no heavy metal music, no loud bars and I encourage them to avoid TV, the internet, computers and cell phones for the rest of the evening.
It has been trickier to teach since my hubby and I are dealing with a fair amount of health limitations. He can’t or shouldn’t do forward bends or inversions and I have been avoiding squats and lunges….. those kinds of poses are about half of the poses so I’ve been feeling more limited lately.
Have an experience or a story you’d like to share about a couples retreat or workshop you did?
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.
Now a break from enlightenment and a dip into pop culture.
Kim Kardashian Doing Yoga
So we know the two are very much in love, but according to insiders Kim has managed to persuade her man to sign up to Couples Yoga in order to “make their love life even better”.
A few years ago in the midst of Kim Kardashian’s divorce from Kris Humphries I wrote a post about how yoga could have make an impact in her commitment to staying married. Maybe this path into Couples Yoga will help her and Kanye?
Kim Kardashian and Kanye West may be as loved up as we’ve ever seen them, but according to a new report the engaged couple are keen to inject even more passion into their relationship with the help of some couples yoga classes.
The TV star and her rapper beau got engaged back in October after welcoming their adorable baby daughter North in June.
Kim and North have been following Kanye across the country in recent weeks as he continues his Yeezus tour, with the new parents spotted indulging in a PDA filled shopping trip on Friday.
So we know the two are very much in love, but according to insiders Kim has managed to persuade her man to sign up to yoga in order to “make their love life even better”.
Kim has been on a health kick since giving birth, with the star proudly showing off her impressive 50 pound weight loss just five months after welcoming her little girl. It sounds like Kim is keen to keep up the hard work as she allegedly hires a private instructor to show her and Kanye how to do yoga in a Hatha style in order to make them more flexible.
Kim & Kanye look loved-up in Miami (Splash News)
A source explained to US OK! Magazine: ”Kim says if their bodies are more flexible, it will make their love life even better. She has convinced him that it’s good for his state of mind and if he finds inner peace, he will be even more creative.”
Kanye is known for his incredible work ethic so we’re betting anything that helps him expand his mind is a plus! The source added:
”Kanye likes to see himself as spiritual and a great thinker, and suddenly he’s getting all enthusiastic about Buddhism and finding his karma.”
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.
