Strengthening Emotional and Physical Intimacy: Creating a Mindful Marriage

Being mindfully present together in a nonjudgmental and accepting way helps reduce conflict, resentment, and avoidance. Mindfulness has also been found to be helpful in romantic relationships by boosting relationship functioning and stress-coping skills, which increases relationship satisfaction, emotional closeness, acceptance of one another, and less emotional distress. Love can be rekindled through mindful practices. It is important for couples to deliberately choose to be loving, because compassion is the adhesive that keeps a relationship safe and strong after the initial headiness if infatuation fades. This chapter addresses how mindfulness can be employed in creating a mindful marriage, discussing how to develop mindful sexuality, overcoming sexual anxiety through presence and nonjudgment, and befriending your body through acceptance and nonjudgment and ends with a number of mindful practices for couples to explore together.