20 Ways To Have Slow, Beautiful Sex To MAGNIFY Your Sexual Pleasure

Ever heard of slow sex? If not, you’re about to.

Today I’m going to deep dive into what slow sex is, why it matters, and why it could be the thing that single handedly revitalizes your relationship, magnifies the sexual pleasure that both you and your partner feel, and reduces stress, fights, and your susceptibility to the (soon-to-be laughably unimportant) goings-on of daily life.

The Biggest Problem With Society Today And How It Affects Our Sex Lives

We live in what has often been referred to as "the information age." There’s more information at our fingertips than ever before, and a result of this phenomenon is that we are more prone than ever to being stuck living in our heads, and feeling increasingly disconnected from our bodies and sexual selves.

With all of this technology fighting for our attention, we often feel distracted, anxious, and disconnected from ourselves and from our partners. The more anxious and disconnected we feel from ourselves, the more prone we are to craving quick fixes.

We want the five-minute cures. We crave fast foods and faster orgasms. Anything to distract us from how disconnected we are from our bodies.

In an unfortunately realistic and common worst case scenario, couples have sex a few times per week with each session lasting anywhere from two to ten minutes. It isn’t uncommon for clients that come to me to say that they have maybe a half an hour per week of total time where they are sexually engaging with their partners.

Clearly, as a sex and relationship coach, I’m biased, but what else is life for if not slowing down to connect with and make love with our significant others? What else are we racing around, accumulating stuff, and things, and social status for, if not to ultimately just wind down with someone that we love?

Love is the always the answer. And slow sex is a delicious and efficient way to access that love.

If given the choice between thirty minutes a week of shallow, draining sexual activity, and five hours of energizing, deeply connected, emotionally invigorating sexual play, I believe that the vast majority of people (men and women) would choose the latter, every single time.

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To put it in another context, would you rather eat fast food three times a week and feel drained, grumpy, and tired afterwards, or sample gourmet, three Michelin star chef prepared food for ten hours a week and feel miraculously recharged (like you could run a marathon) at the end of each extended meal? Yeah, that’s what I thought. Therefore, slow sex is where it’s at.

The Primary Benefits Of Slow Sex

While some of the benefits of slow sex might be more self-explanatory than others, I feel it necessary to point out the major benefits that come from engaging in regular (or even occasional) slow sex with your partner.

Practicing slow sex results in:

• More orgasms (higher total number of orgasms)
• More powerful orgasms (for both of you)
• More connection between you and your significant other
• Fewer and easier fights outside of the bedroom
• Less stress in your daily life
• More sex (in total time and in total number of weekly sessions)
• Your partner is more likely to initiate sex because the sex is that much better.
• If one or both of you are male, slower sex gives a higher likelihood that you will be able to have multiple ejaculatory orgasms without being deterred by your refractory period (aka the time it takes you to sexually recharge).
• More expert level knowledge of what specifically turns your partner on and what gets them to climax

Alright, we get it. Slow sex is phenomenal. So how do you do it? And what does it look like when rubber hits the road (or when bare skin touches bedsheets)?

Now we’ll deep dive into foreplay, during play, and after play, to give you the full comprehensive rundown of how slow sex looks in practical, actionable terms. Don’t forget to take notes.

Slow Sex: Foreplay

Slow sex starts in foreplay because foreplay sets the tone of how the overall sexual session is going to go. (Side note: if you and your partner are both enthusiastically craving a quickie, then go for it. There is absolutely a time and place for that.)

For many couples, their pre-sex rituals are the things that build the sexual tension and anticipation in the room. It could be as overt as putting on your sex playlist, putting condoms on the bedside table, and hungrily looking into your partner's eyes and saying, “Get your sexy ass on the bed, now.” Or it could be as subtle as grabbing your partner’s bum while they brush their teeth (or whatever your covert sign is that signals that you’re feeling voracious).

Whatever you do to set the stage, allow the time and space for slowness in your pre-sex rituals.

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Turn off any and all digital distractions (phones, tablets, computers, TVs) in order to get out of your head and allow yourself to land in your body. Maybe you want to have a bath together, or start with some light massage. Heck, even slow dancing to imaginary music at the foot of your bed will work. Anything that allows you to disconnect from your day, get into your body, and connect with your partner is phenomenal pre-foreplay.

Now, onto the juicy stuff.

Slow Sex Foreplay Tips If Your Partner Is A Woman

(Note: remember that absolutely any sex tips that come from someone who isn’t you and doesn’t know your partner will require some heavy calibration. Every person on the planet is sexually unique. Only your partner knows what all of their sexual turn-ons and turn-offs are, and a healthy dose of communication is necessary in order to help create the best mutual sexual experience for each other.)

I spent years studying Taoist sexual philosophy, and one of my absolute favorite concepts that came from them is the idea that women and men cultivate sexual energy differently. Women cultivate sexual energy like a whirlpool, starting from the outside/extremities and needing to be slowly brought towards the center, and men bring forth sexual energy like a whirlpool but from the center outwards.

To put this in overly simplistic terms, men’s sexual energy starts in the genitals and spreads outwards over time, and women’s sexual energy starts in the extremities and needs to be slowly brought towards the genitals.

So what does this mean in practical, actable terms? Unless you have a somewhat unique partner who wants you to just jump right in (and she tells you so explicitly), it’s considered safe practice to start with kissing, cuddling, touching, necking, and then work your way towards manual stimulation and oral sex.

While this list is by no means exhaustive, here are a few examples of things that you can do to start your slow sex foreplay

1. Spend time touching and cuddling.

Envelope her with your arms. Lightly stroke her hair. Run your fingers along her back, spine, and thighs in slow, lingering, circular motions to wake up her senses. If it’s genuine, make small appreciative grunts/moans/sounds that show her how much you adore her delicious body.

2. If your partner enjoys being kissed on the neck/shoulder area, spend a few minutes lightly breathing on the nape of her back, behind her ear, and over the part of her shoulder where her bra strap would normally fall.

Easy does it. Start very gently. Let your breath and lips do most of the work to begin with and simply graze their skin. Over time, use somewhat firmer touch, suck on her flesh lightly, and maybe incorporate some teeth if she’s into that.

Again, calibration. Some women like no teeth at all, others like it when you leave marks. It all depends on the individual and her preferences.

3. Spend ample time kissing her.

Kiss her lovingly. Kiss her slowly. Kiss her face, neck, arms, ribs, stomach, legs, inner thighs... kiss her everywhere. Lovingly take her face in your hands and kiss her softly. Grab a fistful of her hair and kiss her lustily.

4. Spend enough time on the preparatory phase that when you eventually go to put your fingers between her legs, you’ll have no doubt that she’ll already be dripping wet by the time you touch her.

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If you’re unsure, double the time that you tease her/engage in your foreplay. Her body should start moving in a responsive manner with your hands. Her breathing will change. Believe me, especially if you’ve never spent 30+ minutes on foreplay in your life before, it will be massively apparent when she wants you to escalate to touching her between the legs.

5. When you have figured out that she definitely wants you to start touching her down there, don’t just b-line it for her.

Again, easy does it. Slow sex is supposed to be sloooowwwwww. Enjoy the slow pacing of the drawn-out tease. Run your fingers over her stomach, over her hip bones, down her hips, on the inside and outside of her thighs. Take your time.

Remember the whirlpool analogy. Slowly find your way there. Allow your fingers to take their time finding their way into her wetness. And even when they have, start with slow, long strokes. Her vulva is its own whirlpool, so take your time finding your way to her clitoris.

6. When you/she decide she would like to have your mouth on her, kiss your way down her body.

Kiss a pathway down her neck, collarbone, breasts, nipples, rib cage, stomach, hips, legs, inner thighs, calves, the crease where her thigh meets her groin, where her pubic hair is/would be (if she shaves/waxes)... kiss her everywhere. Multiple times.

7. Get into a comfortable position (for you and her) when you’re getting ready to go down on her.

You want everything about how you prepare to sub-communicate to her “I am sitting down to my favorite meal in the world. I’ll be here for a while so don’t mind me. You just sit back and relax.”

If you contort your body into an awkward position that will inevitably make you cramp up, not only will it hurt your neck/body, but it communicates from the get-go “I’m just doing this for a few seconds because I think it is expected of me, and I won’t be here long.” So get comfortable.

Take your time. And, hopefully, you’ve been doing your tongue/jaw exercises in order to last for as long as you want while you’re down there.

8. Consider the intent behind your contact.

Play with this. Vary it. Experiment. How would you touch your lover if the intent behind your touch was to show and communicate tenderness? What about if it was lust? How about craving? How about love? How would your intent shift the dynamic of your touch, whether you are touching with hands, lips, tongue, or other?

Like I said, this list is by no means a complete one. Maybe your partner prefers a rougher/more aggressive style during foreplay. Maybe she has her own unique style of foreplay not mentioned above that gets her going (foot massage, spanking, twenty minutes of you slowly sucking on her nipples).

Remember, she is the expert. Go in with open ears and an open mind, and your slow sex session will be off to a great start.

Slow Sex Foreplay Tips If Your Partner Is A Man

Contrary to popular belief, foreplay and slow sex are not just things that benefit women. Anyone, regardless of gender, can have a more intense orgasm from the repeated rising and falling of their sexual arousal. I also like to think of extended sexual play as the masculine and feminine energies balancing themselves out (over time) by drinking each other in (through scent, fluids, touch/proximity).

Men benefit from extended slow sex just as much as women do, albeit in slightly different ways. While women may find it easier than most men to have multiple orgasms, I believe that men benefit more (in a way) from getting out of their heads and into their bodies because our relationship to our masculine is hyper-logical/heady one. But that’s a topic for a different article.

On to the slow sex foreplay tips for men. Again, not exhaustive and not meant to be linear. Calibration is key. Your man knows what he wants/needs better than any list on the internet, so make sure you’re communicating before and during your sexual play, and outside of the bedroom as well.

9. Get out of your head with physical contact.

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Many men that I work with tell of how the hardest thing about getting in the mood for sex is getting out of their heads. The thing that gets them out of their heads and into their bodies the most consistently/the easiest? Touch. 

Whether it’s an extended hug hello, an unexpectedly tender kiss on the lips, or simply having their bare torso connect with their partners at the end of a workday, nothing gets men more into their bodies than physical contact. Start there.

10. Consider the energy behind the touch that you’re engaging in.

Your partner might need you to start with tenderness, care, and softness or they might respond the most strongly to you unexpectedly grabbing their crotch while they’re engaging in a decidedly non-sexual activity (i.e., doing the dishes, watching TV, reading).

11. Start with touch.

Are you in bed/somewhere where you’re starting to get frisky? Great. Start with touch. Run your fingers through his hair. Move your hands over his chest. Kiss his neck, shoulders, arms, and back. Wake up his flesh with your lips and fingers.

12. Kiss him softly.

Suck on his lower lip. Graze your lips across his torso. Press your body against his. Let your hair act as another hand, drag it over him slowly, let it fall where it wants to. There is no order to this. The feminine chaos is part of your sexual charm, so embrace it.

13. After touching, kissing, cuddling, teasing for a while, you will know when he is hard and wanting more.

But remember, just as your wetness doesn’t mean you are necessarily ready to be penetrated, his hard penis doesn’t necessarily mean he wants to penetrate you... yet. And even if he does, this is slow sex. He’s allowed to wait a liiiiittle bit longer.

You want to walk the line between building anticipation/sexual tension and creeping up on his genuine frustration. You want to handle his penis/take him into your mouth before he’s genuinely frustrated and starts to lose his erection, but the window of time you have is likely longer than you think it is. So let him squirm a little bit. Anticipatory pleasure is still pleasure, nonetheless.

14. When you decide to start interacting directly with his penis, find your way there slowly.

Run your fingers along his torso. Tease his inner thighs. Kiss your way down his body. Slowly run your fingertip along the underside of his shaft. Gently palm his balls (I know, balls can be confusing, but just start gently and work your way up from there. You’ll be able to tell what kind of pressure he responds to best when you experiment a bit).

15. If you want to take him into your mouth, take your time.

Hover your face near the head of his penis. Lick your way up from the base of the shaft to the tip. When you first take him into your mouth, you can either surprise him by taking him in in one fell swoop, or you can take the teasing route by only taking part of his head past your lips and pausing there for a moment.

Whether you start with small, teasing kisses, or you envelop him fully, you really can’t go wrong. Just take your time. If his penis is in or near your mouth, he’s having fun, I promise.

Slow Sex: During Your Sexual Play

Foreplay is great and taking it slowly definitely sets the stage for some luscious, nourishing, heart-exploding sexual play.

If I could, I would eradicate the word foreplay from existence, because it doesn’t serve anyone to think of sex as either “all the stuff that isn’t penetration” and “penetration.” In truth, all sex is sex, and all foreplay is still sex.

There’s no rule that says you can’t use your hands and mouth as standalone acts during/between rounds of penetrative sex. In fact, it’s encouraged. All of your parts, with all of their parts, all of the time. It’s much more fun that way.

Sex isn’t meant to be sterile, or neat, or organized, or linear. Sex is sex. It’s a free for all. It’s all over the place. Sex is about feeling and connecting and playing and enjoying. That’s what makes it so much fun. It’s the one place where you get to throw off the shackles (or put on the shackles, you kinky thing you) of daily life and be free.

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So, to carry the slowness into your sexual exploration...

16. Take your time when first penetrating/being penetrated.

Savor the moment. Enter/allow yourself to be entered while feeling every inch of your partner’s flesh.

17. Make eye contact.

Or wear blindfolds. Kiss a lot. Or bite instead. Try out some dirty talk. Describe what you’re doing to them, what they’re doing to you, and what you want to happen next. You have eyes, mouths, hands, and ears for a reason. Touch, feel, communicate, taste, and play. You have all night.

18. Bring them close to orgasm, and then stop just before they climax.

You could either do this once/a few times in order to intensify their eventual orgasm, or you could do this for hours/all night (it’s actually a thing called orgasm denial... some people in the BDSM community love it).

19. Make them climax with your hands, with your mouth, and with your genitals.

Maybe your partner loves building up to one really big orgasm and calling it a night (which can still be built up/slowed down with kissing, cuddling, and connection exercises) or maybe they want to orgasm so many times that you both lose count. It’s all fair game.

20. Notice what happens when you kill the music and enjoy slow sex in relative silence.

Maybe you had candles burning, mood lighting, and music on during foreplay, but have the only soundtrack for your session be your breathing and voices. It can be a lot easier to tune into your partner’s state of sexual arousal when there are no auditory distractions in the room.

Slow Sex: After Play

Even if you’re both spent and feel like collapsing in a pile of oxytocin-flooded awesomeness, there are still things you can do to savor the moment as the afterglow carries you back down to a blissful reality.

If you are a male and female partnership, maybe the male partner had one orgasm and his partner had a dozen and the male partner has ample energy to give his partner a massage as she drifts in and out of sleep. Maybe you really benefit from close, press-as-tight-to-each-other-as-possible cuddling while you’re both still glistening with sweat. Maybe you’d prefer to hop in the shower so that you can lather each other up and wash off the sweat/sperm/lube/massage oil/coconut oil.

Whatever you get up to as your sex sessions is winding down, take your time doing it. That’s the whole point of slow sex. Don’t race through it like you race through most of your life... slow down and savor every sensation. Every moan, every hair follicle, every tender kiss, every orgasm — remain present for it all. Watch your partner unfurl in ecstasy while you bond to each other even further.

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Remember, there is no one-size-fits-all linear progression when it comes to sex. If anything, start to re-frame sexual play as circular/chaotic/random. Every act can spontaneously occur in every moment of sexual play.

There is no before, during and after, there is just the moment-to-moment honoring of your body and the body of your partner as beautiful, loveable, and sacred.

Treat your partner’s pleasure like the act of serving them is your religion. Their body is the temple, oral sex is the act of prayer, and lovemaking is living in accordance with honoring your god/goddess.

What Should You Do Now?

The first and most important thing you can do is send this article to your partner. Once you and your partner have both read this and are on the same page, the next step is to put an extended slow sex session into your calendar.

Pick up whatever massage oils/toys/music/mood lighting you might need for your slow sex session and make it happen. You have to put this information into action; otherwise, it’s just words on a page. Commit to doing this with your partner. Make a 3+ hour night of it if you wish.

You will feel more intimately, emotionally, and sexually connected to your partner than you have in months/years.

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Sex and relationship coach Jordan Gray helps people remove their emotional blocks and maintain thriving intimate relationships. You can see more of his writing at JordanGrayConsulting.com.

This article was originally published at Jordan Gray Consulting. Reprinted with permission from the author.