Couples Yoga For Beginners:
Yoga is a fantastic method of strengthening your mental and physical health. Oftentimes, when we think yoga, we think about a practice done individually. However, these benefits are not limited to the individual. Couples yoga for beginners is a great chance to build a deeper relationship with your partner.
Not just that however, bringing in the calming nature of this practice, has the potential to be a great avenue to escape stress faced often in our own daily routines.
Oftentimes, we think about counseling for couples when helping to get through difficult relationship obstacles. However, what about trying complementary or alternative forms of therapy, like yoga. Could this just be a way to help connect our minds and bodies through touch and focus, as oppose to just verbal communication.
Focusing in on our breathing (pranayama), meditative practices, or asanas, may be a great alternative form of therapy to bring us closer together.
Related Article: Easy to Perform Yoga Asanas for Couples: Lets Get Doing Yoga, Together!
Some Interesting Research:
Yoga has actually been studied and linked to couples overcoming infertility and increasing assisted reproductive technology (ART) success rates.
This happens mainly due to the positive effects on both the physiological and psychological states of both men and women, according to one study.
Yoga may also be beneficial for individuals undergoing interpersonal crises.
On top of the potential for mental well-being, you’re also benefitting from the physical potentials of yoga practices. This can include better flexibility, balance, strength and body alignment thus, making you more capable of completing activities of daily living with less aches and pains.
Doing yoga alone can be challenging enough for beginners, when you add an entirely separate person, does that challenge become too much?
Continue reading this guide covering the basics of couples yoga for beginners. Moreover, you’ll learn about the various benefits that yoga can potentially bring into your relationship.
How Couples Yoga For Beginners Can Help
As we dive into this content, keep an open mind. If you’re new to yoga that’s completely okay. One of the great aspects of yoga is it’s versatility and differing styles.
First up,
I. Communication:
One key difference between couples yoga and yoga for the individual is the poses and postures become a coordinated effort. To be successful when practicing couples yoga, the partners must be synchronized and clearly communicate their intentions to their partners. Oftentimes, this is done via non-verbal ways, creating a greater trust between the two.
This type of communication in hopes, will not stop on the yoga mat. Learning how to communicate with your partner during yoga, effectively will spill over into your relationship as well.
In fact, Cain Carrol, co-author of Partner Yoga: Making Contact for Physical, Emotional and Spiritual Growth, discusses this very concept. Not only are these poses great for the physical self, but partner yoga is a platform in which to build stronger communication and intimacy between people.
II. Deeper Connections:
To be successful in couples yoga, each partner must trust the other to provide the support needed to maintain the correct posture.
Likewise, partners need to be able to communicate with the other through alternative methods, other than verbal. This means each partner must learn how the other works and figure out how to be there, using many nonverbal clues.
Partner yoga, according to CNN, is designed to connect people via the “somatosensory system, also known as the sense of touch.”
This sensation of touch can help to emotionally connect more effectively, improving even dopamine release, a neurotransmitter made in the brain, oftentimes released during pleasurable situations. Thus, facilitating a deeper connection and developing a deeper level of intimacy and trust.
III. Stronger Bonds:
Making the choice to attend a weekly yoga class with your partner will create valuable time in your busy schedule to focus only on each other. Without the distraction of your daily hustle and bustle, you will be forced to give all of your attention to your partner.
This will allow you to discover new aspects of your partner and ultimately create more in-depth, stronger bonds with one another.
IV. Lower Stress Levels:
Stress can be disastrous to any relationship. You could find yourself at odds with your partner. Furthermore, over the smallest things, frequently without an outlet to release the tensions brought on by daily stress.
Couples yoga for beginners (like doing yoga solo) will allow the partners to release stress and let go of the things that don’t matter in the larger picture. This is an essential skill that needs to be learned in any relationship. A yoga mat can be the perfect place to learn these valuable relationship skills.
Many studies have been conducted linking mindfulness practices like meditation and yoga to the reduction in conditions such as stress, anxiety and depressive symptoms. Furthermore, all of which can be harmful to relationships of any kind.
V. Better Sex Life:
Another benefit of couples yoga is having the potential for a better sex life. Surely, due to the increased communication involved through touch and movement during your practice.
According to one study, which focused on mindfulness practices, yoga can increase the sex drive of both partners. The study showed mindfulness to “significantly improve several aspects of sexual response, and reduce sexual distress in women with arousal disorders.”
This is likely due to the physical touching and synchronized movement involved in couples yoga.
Related Article: “Spice it Up” with Yoga: Hot Yoga For Couples
According to one study out of Loyola University Health System, partner yoga may help those couples who struggle with sexual dysfunction.
Susan Walsh, a psychologist and certified yoga instructor discusses this very issue stating, “partner yoga can clear negative energy that can develop in marriages over time, and help a couple reconnect, becoming comfortable with touch and intimacy”.
The intimate connection formed when partners move and breathe in sync with each other will lead to a deeper physical and emotional connection. This is one reason why some relationship therapists are suggesting couples yoga, to add a little romance back into a relationship.
Final Thoughts!
What a fun thing you can add into your relationship. Not only can this help manage your own stress levels, but hopefully build a stronger bond between partners. You can even add in some yoga props, like yoga cork blocks or yoga straps. This will add to the difficulty in routine.
We hope you enjoyed the read. Now, go out there and practice yoga with your partner. Thanks for stopping in, and have a great day!
Resources:
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29112941/
- https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/09/130916203953.htm
- https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19090937/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4196270/
- https://www.betterworldbooks.com/product/detail/partner-yoga-making-contact-for-physical-emotional-and-spiritual-growth-1579542719
- https://www.cnn.com/2015/03/16/health/partner-yoga-poses/index.html
- https://www.enzolifesciences.com/science-center/technotes/2018/november/the-role-of-dopamine-as-a-neurotransmitter-in-the-human-brain/
- https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3193654/
