Can you give three minutes to reconnect with your partner?
When was the last time you really felt touched? Or gave touch? Think about it - I don't mean a hand shake - or a pat on the back when someone does a great job. I am talking about intentional loving touch, just for the sake of connection, intimacy and pleasure.
After all - It is such a basic thing right? The ability to give and receive touch - and yet it is where most couples stumble. How can you stumble in giving and receiving touch you may ask? Isn't touching something that everybody knows how to do. Well - maybe, and perhaps not so much!
Slow sex isn't about endurance, marathon sessions or complicated positions. It's about really being there in the moment, enjoying one another fully. It's about taking the time to touch and to kiss. The point isn't just to have sex, but rather to feel real sensual joy.
What happens in our bodies when we touch each other sexually? Why is touch so powerful?
What happens in our bodies when we touch each other sexually? Why is touch so powerful? The unromantic answer is that when we touch, our brains are affronted with a deluge of chemicals that change both us and how we relate to our partner.
For great sex, with or without the big explosions, add some sensuality to your love life.
When you're first dating, you don't know when or even if you're going to make love. The anticipation is exciting, and you often spend quality time kissing and building up to that moment
when you finally "do it."
Low libido? How to turn yourself on and get your sex drive back in gear—no pill necessary.
My libido has never been particularly off the charts but, lately, I've come to feel that—due to the perpetually barren desert between my legs – I'll never find my way out of this vast Sahara of a sex life. It's disconcerting. It's frustrating. But I'm not the only one. Luckily, you can turn your libido around.
For some couples tender intimacy precludes passionate, erotic sex. How to rediscover lust.
Intense passion and loving intimacy can co-exist, but most couples struggle to merge erotic sex with tender love. Women don't want to feel objectified to the absence of caring, and couples get bored if their sex lives are completely devoid of heat. Here are six exercses you can try to merge tenderness and sexual heat.
A study shows that holding hands with a loved one is really good for your health.
Why is it that when we're upset, stressed, or scared we instinctively reach for our partner's hand? Or conversely, why is it that we always seem to reach for our partner's hand to comfort them when they're upset? Well a recent study by University of Virginia psychologist, Dr. James Coan, showed that the answer doesn't lie between our fingers, but in our brains. The study involved subjecting 16 happily-married women to stressful situations while monitoring their brain activity. The results showed less activity in the stress-related areas of the women's brains even while holding a stranger's hand, and a whole lot less when they held their hubby's hand.
When a man can't get it up, the experience for him and his partner falls somewhere between awkward and utterly mortifying—I've even heard of men not calling women back because they were so ashamed of their inability to keep it up. So what can a woman say or do when her man can't get an erection? Here are five things you can say to help make the best of the situation.
Because men are so sensitive about it, and because it's about as embarrassing a moment as he can experience, it puts the woman in a really tough spot. Of course you just want to say, "Honey, is there something I can do to help?" But in some cases, that's exactly what he doesn't want to hear. He's thinking, "No, I'm just dying from the pressure here, and the last thing I want you to do is even notice, much less try to help!"
Even worse is if you say, "Is there something wrong?" or "Are you okay?"—because, yes, there obviously is something wrong (you don't have to remind me!) and, no, I'm clearly not OK, I'm flaccid!
So what can a woman say or do when her man can't rev up the engines? Here are a few possibilities, but know that any one of these can backfire too, depending on the circumstances. But, in order of most likely to go over well, here are five ways you can say to help make the best of the situation.
The value of a friend's hug and other benefits of non-sexual touch.
When we're hungry, it's simple—we eat. When we're thirsty, we drink. But what about when you just want to and need to be touched? There are no touch cafés. Touch doesn't come as a gift with purchase at the Lancôme counter. And if you're not in a romantic relationship, how do you fill up your touch tank to full?
There are often not enough outlets for affection in platonic relationships. Friends provide emotional support, memorable nights out, advice and adventures, but few friendships are so close that it's comfortable and acceptable for you two to, say, snuggle on the couch together, or hold each other in a longer-than-usual embrace—one long enough to communicate sincerity but short enough not to be awkward. The line becomes especially blurred if you're of compatible sexual orientations, because, oh my god, then it must mean you like each other.
But wanting to be touched is a basic human need. (Without it, we're so much more susceptible to depression, stress, anxiety, loss in self-confidence and loss in drive and motivation!) And sadly though not surprisingly, we live in a touch-deprived culture that’s comfortable with touch only if it has sexual meaning, if we're celebrating, if someone is consoling or being consoled, or if it involves raising our kids.
