(CLICK) Embodiment Exercise (day 2): Integrating Emotions, Body, Relaxation, Pleasure, Intimacy

Embodiment Exercise: Integrating Emotions, Body, Relaxation, Pleasure, Intimacy

Day 2:

Take turns holding your partner’s head in your lap on a pillow for about 10 minutes each. Go slooooow. Gently stroke your partner’s face (forehead, cheeks, nose, chin, ears, eyebrows, lips) and throat. Anxiety is SO normal. (Note: 10 minutes can be a lot of contact - this exercise is meant to help you expand your ability to tolerate anxiety and calm yourself down so that you can enjoy emotional contact and pleasure more.) Take a deep breath, focus on your own breathing, take care to calm yourself down and relax into your heart. Drop your shoulders, readjust your position if you're uncomfortable. It's okay, you're doing just fine.

Return to the features of your partner's face. Touch them as if this may be the last time your fingers will ever touch this face. If you're in touch with it, feel gratitude for this human being and let that thankfulness be in your eyes while you touch.

If you're not in touch with feeling thankful for your partner, consider what kind of a partner you want to be. If you want to be an emotionally available partner and value that in yourself, work to relax and calm yourself while you are present to the human being in your lap, or who is touching your face. Relax into the kind of partner you value being. Bring your best, full self to your partner no matter how you currently feel about them. Crying helps, sometimes. It's all okay.