Archive for the ‘love’ Category

The Best Marriage Advice You’ll Ever Get

Friday, June 24th, 2011

As Part Three in this series on the many dimensions of amazing sex, I’m talking about mental connection. I’ve said before that the best sex touches you on every level.

Today let’s explore your mind.

The best marriage advice you’ll ever get:

“Marry somebody who turns you the fuck on.”

- Ice T

What turns you on?

Get clear on this. Make a list. Someone asked me this question recently. To give you an idea of what this can look like for you, I’ll share some of my responses. This is a list of some of the things that get me wet. Not metaphorically, like oh-this-is-so-cool; I mean literally dripping and wanton, wet.

Integrity. Number one on my list. When I watch a man display strong ethics and a moral code, I get excited. From the heart and groin, I begin to open. Why? I know I can trust this person. In order for me to open up and surrender, I need to feel safe.

Intelligence and perceptiveness. A razor-sharp mind. Someone who catches everything. When I listen to Rachel Maddow, I feel a stirring in my belly. It’s the no-bullshit, no apologies, tell-it-like-it-is brilliance that bursts out of her. She’s penetrating. And I love being penetrated. There is no hiding with someone like this–they see you even when you are trying not to be found. Who doesn’t want to be found? As Marianne Williamson says, “Our deepest need is to be seen.”

Wit and humor. I found this much more prevalent when I lived in London where wit is a national past time. Even the newsagents will banter with you. I’m starved for it in Canada, but when it comes along and someone can create a playful exchange with me, I’m enrapt.

It’s the capacity for play, for taking something serious in the moment and making fun of it. This shows me that someone is able to laugh at themselves, at life and see the deeper and more humorous themes running behind things. Humor can disarm people and open them up in moments when they least expect it.

Plus, banter is psychological foreplay. I lob, he lobs back. I hit really hard and he returns it, with equal power. I want to know that someone is capable of rising up to the occasion.

Essentially, I’m testing out my prospective lovers. All of these qualities have an element that relates to intimacy for me.

They aren’t obvious in the sense of someone having a great ass or six pack abs or having a certain hair color. In fact, I’ve been amazed over the years at the types of people I’ve been smitten by and it has nothing to do with their physiques or appearance.

Although, I can’t say that I don’t notice these things.

Powerful bodies also have a message behind them: the person cares enough about themselves to nourish and strengthen their vessel. Having a carved abdomen takes perseverance and commitment–qualities I want. I know that someone who perseveres in life will persevere in bed. And I love me my marathon sex.

If you are getting to know someone, be conscious of the qualities that are important to your libido-meter. See how many of them are there. If you are in a relationship already, find more ways to connect in the areas that fire you up.

Image: Chris Craymer

Into-Me-See

Friday, June 17th, 2011

Stop hiding.

Your intimate relationship is the place for you to let down your guard, open up and in doing so, be seen, cherished and healed by another person.

When you do that, you tap into a huge power source–the power of love. What is love, really? Okay, it’s a lot of things, but to me, more than anything, love is openness. Rumi said that:

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.”

Think of your connection with your partner as your practice arena. It’s here that you learn to shed the layers of who you think you are and show up as who you truly are. Bit by bit, you peel back anything false that you’ve piled on over the years and get raw and naked.

Instead of making you weak, this gives you strength.

Intimacy (into-me-see) is a major power source in relationships. By letting your partnership become a working agreement rather than the place you get naked (physically and emotionally), you miss out.

You only harness that power by letting someone see into you. And by looking deeply into them–their crevices and dark corners. Your acceptance of these places catalyzes them into energy and qualities you can integrate into your lives.

Your relationship is meant to be your sanctuary. Your place to let go and refuel. This is where you bring your light and your darkness, to have it illuminated and transformed. You can go hard and strong during your daily life, and then come back to the vessel of your relationship and let it all go.

How do you do it?

Just start.

Debrief the effluvia of your day or your life quickly so you get it out of the way. Then go deep. Talk about your dreams. Ask about his dreams. Tell her a secret fantasy. Share something that you fear makes you look less-than-strong. Find the places in yourself that feel like walls, the things you are afraid to bring forth and then do exactly that.

Being witnessed and accepted gives you strength. It helps you to self-actualize.

Today, think of three areas you’ve held back on sharing with your partner. All of these things obscure the space between you. So clear them. Do it now. Do it tonight. Go to bed half an hour earlier and carve out time to talk. Face-to-face, heart-to-heart. Once you do this, genital-to-genital will happen more easily and feel much more pleasurable.

How to Save Your Marriage

Friday, February 18th, 2011

Have more sex. Preferably every day.

I wrote a year or two ago about a couple who decided (well, primarily she decided) to have sex every day for a year. I read an article yesterday about the results of their experiment five years after the Year of Living Sexually.

The consensus was that “it was the best year of our marriage, without a doubt,” according to Charla, the wife. “I never would have predicted that at the beginning, or that it would have such an impact.”

The original intention of the 365 days of sex was to provide her husband with a year-long 40th birthday gift. Charla considered her marriage to be a happy one, but was aware that the sexual passion had dwindled. “Like a lot of married couples with kids, sex got lost along the way. But its absence becomes a presence in the marriage, a silent tension hanging in the air. It certainly was in mine,” says Charla.

“Brad actually thought it was unromantic, that sex should be more spontaneous. I said to him ‘look at our lives now — nothing we do is spontaneous.’ The point is you absolutely cannot depend on spontaneity to keep your sex life going when you’re in your 40s, married and with kids — it’s never going to happen.”

Charla confesses there were days when she didn’t feel up to it but likened it to any discipline–like going to the gym or eating a healthy meal. There may be initial reticence, but the dividends are huge. Plus, once you get going, you inevitably feel better.

“Of course, there were days when I didn’t want to do it — but then there were days when I didn’t want to do a lot of things, but I still did them because it oils the wheels. And what could be more important than oiling the wheels of your marriage? It doesn’t have to be the A-plus experience all the time — the main thing is that you are making an effort.”

“I do think it’s very easy for women to say: ‘Men just need sex more, I just don’t need it as much.’ For my own part, what I realised is that, actually, I do need that form of physical connection with my husband just as much as he does — but maybe it nourishes me in a different way.”

Remember, the major factor that distinguishes your marriage or intimate relationship with all others is the fact that you are having sex with that person (em, probably). Your sexual connection is designed to be a source of energy, nourishment and pleasure that feeds you and enriches not just your relationship, but your entire lives.

I challenge you to try it for 30 days. Yes–30 days of sex. See how it goes. Make an official sex date at least once a week where you set aside three hours just for sex, and then make sure that every day outside of that you still have sex.

Let me know how it goes!