A happy marriage has the attributes of friendship. There’s someone to zip your dress, give an opinion about what tie goes with the jacket, get aspirin for your headache, or laugh at your jokes. Good stuff. But what sustains a marriage and makes it GREAT is Emotional Intimacy. The chance to improve intimacy is what makes living together on a day-to-day basis, with all its ups and downs, easy and comfortable and why it’s essential for every couple to have intimacy rituals that can be practiced daily.

No, I don’t mean candles, heated massage oil, and the hot tub. Those are great – for sexual intimacy. But let’s not confuse physical intimacy with emotional intimacy. The best relationship advice will emphasize the importance of both but they occupy different realms of the relationships. In the falling-in-love fireworks stage of your relationship, intimacy equaled SEX! But once you settle into your nest, the stork pays a visit or two, there’s a lawn to be mowed, the cat has to go to the vet, kids need chauffeuring or help with homework, the car breaks down, the toilet backs up, one of you loses a job, gets sick, or has an argument with a friend. All of that makes you too tired to think, let alone jump each other’s bones.

The priority to create intimacy is more important than ever. Now that the less-frequent opportunity for sex presents itself, there will be times when you really do have a headache, are too irritated by your mouthy teen-ager’s attitude, have an early flight to catch, or for whatever reason you’re just not in the mood. You cannot rely on sex to provide the intimacy you need to have a great relationship. Yes, a good sex life is crucial, but without emotional intimacy, your marriage is likely to wither and die no matter how great the sex may be.

Intimacy rituals don’t have to be complex or take a big chunk of time and can even be part of a daily task or event. Here’s what Hubby Dale and I do. At the beginning of the day, Dale sits in the bathroom and chats with me while I get dressed for the office. We don’t talk about anything special, we’re just together for a few minutes before we go to work for the day. We come back together over dinner. We don’t answer the phone and the TV is off. We talk about current events or Dale’s trip to the hardware store where he ran into an old friend, we chuckle over something cute a niece said, we plan a cocktail party, or revisit a favorite memory. An eavesdropper would find it mundane, but for us, it’s a reconnection after being apart all day.

For you, an intimacy ritual might be calling each other on your lunch hour and taking a few minutes to catch up on your day, making dinner together, doing an evening crossword puzzle, playing dominoes, or turning off the television, snuggling and chatting for 20 minutes before going to sleep.

This bit of relationship advice is easy to follow. Converting an everyday event into an intimacy ritual may require nothing more than a change in how you view that activity. Finding the time may be as easy as doing together what one usually does alone. Bathing the baby, gardening, grocery shopping, making the evening meal, washing the cars, etc., are all opportunities for the kind of togetherness that fosters emotional intimacy. You just need the right state of mind.

Give it a try and see how much more intimate you will be.

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