As part of National Yoga Month, we are posting a blog post a week about how yoga can improve various parts of our lives. Last week, we talked about how stretching in the workplace is so important. Today we are going to be talking about how yoga can help improve romantic relationships.
Yoga makes us feel more relaxed. When we are frustrated about work, traffic, personal dramas, etc. the person we tend to take it out on is the person closest to us, our partners. When we are constantly tense, anxious, stressed, or upset, we are not able to be present and focused on those we love. Yoga teaches us to relax and gives us peace of mind, and it gives us the tools to deal with the daily frustrations in life so that we can get through it without taking it out on those we love.
Yoga can actually improve your sex life. Those who are physically active are generally healthier, happier, and have better sex than those who are not active. Yoga in particular can improve your sex life in many ways; yoga increases circulation and blood flow which increases arousal, yoga can make you feel more comfortable and in your own skin and therefore more sexually confident, and it strengthens the muscles of the core and pelvic floor strength (mula bandha) which increases sensation.
Yoga increases self awareness, which makes us a better partner. Yoga teaches us to turn inward and take responsibility for who we are and how we feel. For many, this means we are less likely to see ourselves as victims and are more likely to approach fights or disagreements with a mindset of “What can I do to help or change this situation?”.
Yoga teaches us to slow down and recognize what is important in life. In a yoga class we focus on the physical poses as a means to overall increase our holistic health. It’s not helpful to obsess over perfectly executing individual poses and forget the overall goal of increasing the quality of our lives with mindfulness. This lesson is an important one in relationships as well; yoga can remind us to be less caught up in day to day drama, planning, and work, and more focused on nurturing the love, gratitude, and connection with our partners.
Yoga teaches us patience. Both meditation and the physical poses of yoga can be extremely hard. Sitting in silence in a meditation class without moving, planning your day, mapping out traffic in your head, thinking of what you had for dinner last night, etc. is HARD. It takes patience to clear your head and get to a place where you can experience the benefits of meditation. Yoga poses can be hard as well, and often yogis must modify poses until they are strong enough to do the full version, which can be frustrating and requires much patience. Similarly, relationships take patience and care in order to flourish.
There are many areas of life that we can work on that can help us be more romantic partners and help us develop our relationships with our significant others…and, even with our closest friends and family members. All of these points can contribute to many aspects of our lives, but specifically can help improve romantic relationships. Let us know, are there any ways yoga has helped you become a better partner?