10 Ways Couples Yoga Therapy Can Strengthen Your Relationship
Using couples yoga therapy to make strong bonds
What shows up on a yoga mat can help you gain insight into your relationship. When you experience a couples yoga therapy session you engage in conscious breathwork, mindful movement, and embodied awareness. These tools allow you to see yourself, your partner, and your relationship from a different standpoint. Allowing you to gain a fresh perspective.
Here’s how couples yoga therapy can improve your relationship;
1. Strengthen your relationship with yourself
Self-love is the start of a happy relationship. Understanding yourself and being ok with who you are gives you a certain strength and resilience. To make a partnership work your strength will be called upon often. If you do not love yourself, you won't feel you are worthy of love from others. In your relationship, you want to be able to accept wholeheartedly the love your partner has to give.
When working together in couples therapy, as well as seeing your partnership from a new lens you often see your self in another way and this in turn allows you to gain an acceptance of that self.
2. Improve your communication skills
Strong and healthy relationships are built on good communication. To communicate well you first have to learn to listen. Listening is more than hearing. It’s about understanding what your partner is trying to communicate to you.
In couples yoga therapy we work together, so you can learn the tools needed to communicate well. It takes a little practice to be an active listener but it is a valuable tool in any relationship.
3. Spend time together
Spending time with each other allows you to have shared experiences which strengthens the bond of any relationship.
Life can be busy. It’s easy to put your relationship to the back of the queue while you deal with other priorities. But this is a mistake that will be paid for down the road. Carving out us time to take a couples session sets the intention to spend time with your partner now.
4. Create something together
Making something together is another way of having a shared experience. But you are making something tangible. Creating something together can be a powerful experience. Making yoga poses together can make you laugh and sometimes make you cry but the experience is something you get to share.
The yoga poses in couples yoga therapy are created by 2 people coming together to form one pose. You co-create a shape. The shape is created by communicating with your partner and together you find the shape that fits your 2 bodies best.
5. Connect deeply with your body and self with yoga
When we can connect with our bodies we can notice thoughts, feelings, and emotions whilst letting go of the chatter of our mind. Connecting to our inner selves can help us be present in the moment. Feel what is true and alive for us right now, and help us move away from our usual unhealthy behavior patterns. Bringing the felt sense into our relationships means making a deep connection with your partner.
Embodiment is when you are in a state of focused awareness, feeling fully present and grounded in your body. During a couples yoga therapy session, you will be coached to become embodied in your poses.
6. Rediscover intimacy
When co-creating shapes and poses you will see each other in a different light. You may be reminded of your partner’s positive qualities. Their strength, their humor, or their ability to be vulnerable. Sitting together, breathing together, and being held creates a special sort of intimacy.
7. Yoga helps you to set boundaries
Setting boundaries allows you the space you need, to flourish. In a relationship setting boundaries allows each partner to carve out the space needed for mental and emotional well-being. And to agree on what behavior is appropriate for that relationship. Setting boundaries helps you know when to walk away from a toxic situation.
In a yoga practice you model boundary setting. Stopping before a stretch is beyond your limits. Reigning back if you feel you have gone a little far in a posture. Your body experiences the feeling of space and freedom in certain poses. This feeling in your body can help reinforce a behavior.
8. Yoga lets you just be
Being able to just be with what is. Being accepting of yourself for who you are. Accepting your partner for who they are. Accepting the situation you are in right now. Rather than passively accepting and doing nothing about your situation. You are taking stock, mindfully seeing things for what they are, and letting go of judgment and ego. You then see your situation with a newfound clarity. Now you can make changes and move forward in a mindful, meaningful way.
The practice of acceptance comes up time and time again in yoga poses. What you practice on the mat you can take away with you and use in your life.
9. Yoga can release trauma
Trauma lives in the body. Yoga can release energy or trauma that gets trapped in our bodies at some point in our lives. In a yoga session, you may notice thoughts, feelings, and emotions coming to the surface during a pose. Our bodies, minds, and nervous systems have been present throughout our whole lived experience, so it is not surprising that some stuff from our pasts may live in the body. The more embodied you are, the deeper you have dropped in, the more likely it is that stuff will surface.
Couples yoga therapy is a safe space for you and your partner to explore what comes up for you. during a session. When emotions, or things from the past arise this is the space where you can make sense of things to move forward.
10. Learn self-love through yoga
The yoga mat is a great place to remind yourself, your body and mind are strong. You may experience gratitude for the body working through the poses and appreciation for the breath that keeps you steady and grounded. You start to form a connection with your body that is one of appreciation and gratitude. You learn to love yourself. It is easy to take your body for granted and forget it is magnificent. It is the same in a relationship. It is easy to take things for granted and sometimes forget to say “I love you”.
