With Valentine's Day around the corner, there's only one thing that should be on your mind: love. Keeping that in mind, here are 10 ways your yoga practice will make you a better lover just in time for V-Day. Summon your inner cupid as you take your yogidom to the next level.
1. Laser Focus
Yoga helps you master the art of focusing on the moment at hand. Use your laser focus to zero in on your partner and your partner alone, and it'll only be a matter of time before he or she reciprocates by focusing solely on you.
2. Timely Sensations
Yoga heightens your sensitivity to sensation, and we all know sex is a smorgasbord of erotic sensations. Yoga also teaches you how to time and treat the sensations you are experiencing. Just like yoga, sex requires that you know when to back off or slow down before it's too late, or early, for one of you.
3. Connected Breaths
Next time you're in a yoga class, pay attention to breath. Not just your own, but to everyone's in the class. You see how breath creates the opportunity for everyone to connect? To get in sync? Breath can play the same role between you and your partner. Pay attention to your partner's breath and you'll know everything you need to know about him or her.
4. Endless Flexibility
This one's a given. A regular yoga practice will keep your body flexible and agile enough so that when the back seat of a car has to do, it will.
5. Ultimate Union
Yoga literally means to yoke together. Sex is the ultimate union. If you can unite your mind, body and spirit on a yoga mat, you'll be able to unite with your lover in bed.
6. Patient Foreplay
When it comes to your yoga practice, chances are you aren't diving into your most difficult positions straight off the bat. You're taking the time to warm up, and you only slip into a pose when the pose is ready. Think of your yoga warm-up as foreplay. If you're not in a hurry in yoga class, you shouldn't be with your lover either. Take the time to engage in foreplay before you get into those tricky poses you've been saving for Valentine's Day.
7. Grooving Moves
When it comes to yoga and sex, one thing is critical: flow. In yoga, you find your groove as you move. Take a cue and remember that the next time you think "lying there" qualifies as lovemaking.
8. Tangled Limbs
It's no surprise that yoga and the Kama Sutra come from the same place. Tangled arms and legs are a specialty of both. Certain yoga poses translate quite well into the bedroom if you don't have your copy of the Kama Sutra handy.
9. "Couples Yoga"
Sex done right is yoga. If you're used to setting aside 90 minutes a day to practice yoga, consider swapping out a practice for sessions with your loved one instead. Don't feel relegated to the yoga mat either. You can practice "Couples yoga" pretty much anywhere.
10. The Afterglow
In yoga, you work hard for 60 minutes, but then you get that glorious 15 minutes of savasana to allow the magic of the practice to seep into your soul. Make sure that in lovemaking, you allow for cuddle time so you can both relish the afterglow. No one's allowed to run out of yoga class the minute that last flow is complete, and you shouldn't be running out on your partner either.
If you ever had any doubt before, now you know: cupid sure was one frisky yogi. Happy Valentine's Day, yʼall.