What is partner yoga and why do we flow together?
Traditionally, yoga is seen as an individual practice, but Partner Yoga brings two or more people together through movement, play, breath, touch, and intimacy. The practice can vary from including asanas that are partner-assisted–in which one partner adjusts the other into a deeper expression; simultaneous flow; or involve balancing off one another–as in acro yoga.
The benefits of yoga and relational and sexual life are abundant! And when you put TWO people into the flow together? Magical electricity…
A growing body of research has shown yoga to have immediate psychological effects including decreasing anxiety and depression, and increasing feelings of emotional, social, and spiritual well-being. Simultaneously, yoga has also been shown to aid in physical health concerns such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity, muscular tension, and anxiety. All of which affect or sexuality and/or adrenal systems that help with hormone production.
Regular yoga practice cultivates mindfulness and greater body awareness so you don’t miss a single juicy moment with yourself or your lover. Typically in sex we are simply going at it in search for orgasmic event lying ahead. We mechanically or habitually rub our genitals against each other faster and faster. Maybe we are enjoying it? Maybe we aren’t until we reach orgasm (maybe), after which we roll over on our side and fall asleep, or if we are lucky, we get to cuddle. Body awareness is crucial to lifting our sexual experience to new heights.
When we drop our awareness into our bodies we become cognizant to a multitude of processes occurring all in the same moment. We become attentive to our heart beating in our chest, our breath rising and falling from the belly, our body temperature radiating from our skin, subtle vibrations and tingling sensations, tension, and rhythm in our movement. All of a sudden sex becomes more than just a tab A into slot B, boom orgasm, but it becomes a fascinating world to explore and experience.
Additionally, out skin is the largest organ on our body holding and protecting everything we hold internally from everything that exists externally. When we physically touch, we are literally connecting our internal selves with the external world. What we pick up in our tactile ability, we internally process and make sense of. At the same time, what we internally experience can often be felt and experienced by those on the external. Have you ever touched someone and felt them relax into you? Or conversely, tense up from your touch? Quickly you can gather what their internal process may be, whether you understand the reasoning or not. Physical contact is language that helps us to communicate experiences that cannot be put into words.
There is also an extensive amount of research identifying frequent physical touch as crucial for our human development, relational well-being, and personal health.
How long has it been since you’ve last touched or been touched by another human being?
Want more?
Check out our video + in-person classes project with #DrAvaCadell with Sexycises Yoga for Intimacy