7 Vibrantly Effective Tips on How to Enhance Intimacy in Your Relationship
Discover The Art of Nurturing and Growing Intimacy
Intimacy is the heart of any loving relationship, much more than just the physical closeness of two bodies. It is an emotional connection, a bond that aligns two hearts together.
Whether your relationship is still in its budding stage or has survived the tides of time, nurturing and growing intimacy is essential. Here are seven essential ways to enhance intimacy in your relationship:
1. Open Communication
True closeness is achieved when you both communicate with each other without inhibition or fear of judgment. Encourage each to share your desires, fears, and feelings. The safer you both feel in expressing your emotions and hearing your partner empathetically, the more you will grow in emotional closeness. This shared vulnerability serves as the relationship’s leading way to deepen intimacy and secures the safety that allows love to bloom for years to come.
Activity: Want a way to increase open communication? Use a card deck like Esther Perel’s “Where Should We Begin?” conversation card game or schedule a coaching session with me to learn how to bring the powerful and immensely effective communication tool called a Dyad into your relationship.
2. Quality Time Together
In the melee of everyday life, it’s hard not to let the importance of quality time with your partner slide down the list of priorities. So, make time for each other, whether it is a night out for a romantic dinner or a casual evening stroll after a meal or just a quiet night in. Such shared experiences are imperative in growing intimacy in a relationship and in taking one’s bond to new levels, renewing the connection day after day.
Activity: Pull out your calendars today and schedule a few hours together sharing a favorite activity, whether it’s making a meal together, going to a restaurant you love, or taking a bath together. A couples coaching session learning about your erotic blueprints can also be a wonderful opportunity for quality time together.
3. Physical Touch
Physical touch is such a strong way to reinforce closeness. Holding hands, embracing, or cuddling can clearly convey love and affection without even uttering a word. Such tender moments of connection are vital in heightening intimacy in a relationship and go with feelings of security and warmth that draw you close. It’s true that not everyone expresses their love through touch; however, a simple hug held for 20 seconds or longer can release the bonding hormone oxytocin and bring both of you into a relaxed coregulation, increasing relaxation and boosting your immune systems.
Activity: Not everyone is naturally adept at touch. Maybe you and/or your partner could use some pointers on how to touch with skill, mindfulness and even sensuality. Learn new ways to touch one another for pleasure in a personalized training.
4. Express Appreciation
Gratitude forms the crux of any loving relationship. It’s in these everyday gestures of showing appreciation for your partner’s efforts, no matter how minute, that really helps build a positive and nourishing environment. When the feeling of being valued and cherished is mutual, emotional closeness follows of its own accord, and thus the relationship becomes stronger. This forms the basis of how to improve intimacy in relationships.
Activity: Make a list for one another titled “The Top 10 (or 100 if you’re feeling ambitious!) Things I Love and Appreciate About You”. Then read them aloud together to each other. The one receiving the appreciation gets to soak it in and responds at the end with a simple “Thank you for seeing me.” Both of you get a turn to bask in being appreciated! Don’t hold back on your “appreciation generosity” when you’re making your list about your partner. Enjoy!
5. Explore Together
Doing something new, be it a hobby or simply exploring an aspect of another, reveals aspects that could have grown stale or boring in the relationship. Shared experiences, whether it is exploring a new city or uncovering new hobbies with each other, add layers of richness to your bond. These moments of discovery and newness are major components in improving intimacy, especially because they take you both out of your routines, and thereby creating lasting memories that can deepen your connection.
Activity: Consider sharing a personally curated intensive with me to help you both learn and practice new skills and receive the expanded erotic education you never got in school. I offer half-day and full-day intensives tailored to your unique erotic empowerment desires.
6. Get Emotional
Intimacy is much more than just physical closeness; it has to do with emotional connection ~ the sharing of your inner emotional landscape. Share your dreams, fears, and deep thoughts with your spouse or partner. Emotional openness is the foundation of increasing intimacy in a relationship because it builds trust that both partners can reveal themselves to one another. This allows each to grow in understanding and oneness with the other. It also energizes both partners to encourage and help each other throughout life.
Activity: Consider expanding your emotional vocabulary together by reading the book The Language of Emotions by Karla McLaren. This is one of my absolutely favorite books to support emotional intelligence and empower effective, heart-centered communication.
7. Remember, Intimacy is a Journey
Intimacy in a relationship is not an event; rather, it is a lifelong process that keeps evolving with the ups and downs of life. It is work that never stops, and it calls for ongoing effort, patience, and commitment from both people in the couple. You can become an expert on how to enhance intimacy and manifest more love within your relationship by giving you both plenty of quality time, open communication, physical touch, appreciation, exploration opportunities, and emotional bonding, which will revitalize your relationship in rewarding and satisfying ways.
Activity: Sometimes it’s helpful to work with a professional to get temperature read on where you are in your relationship and clarify where you’d like to be. I offer a very popular 2-hour Ask Me Anything/ Tell Me Anything session designed to help you gain clarity about your relational goals and move your toward increased relational satisfaction. Learn more here.
