Blog | Relationship Resources for Couples & Individuals

Our Comfort with Intimacy Has A Lot to do with These 7 Verbs

Love is an active verb. It’s imbued with intention and meaning and contains an implicit call to action. In the language of intimacy, basic fluency comes down to just seven verbs. The experiences that revolve around these shape our beliefs about ourselves and our expectations of others. Read more on the seven verbs of intimacy and how they help us to understand not just how we learned to love and be loved—but how we want to now.

Letters from Esther #31: Inviting Vulnerability

My monthly newsletter and workshop are meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Inviting Vulnerability.

In Long-Term Relationships, When Do You Find Yourself Most Drawn to Your Partner?

Reconciling the domestic and the erotic is a delicate balancing act in long-term relationships. It requires knowing your partner while recognizing their persistent mystery. Read more on the one simple question that reminds us to appreciate our partner’s otherness and what the four most common responses tell us.

Letters From Esther #30: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships.

The Other 3 Little Words: I Love You, But—What Are We?

Saying “I love you” has long been the ultimate marker of seriousness in the early months of romantic relationships. In the last few decades, however, the rise of the “situationship” has elongated the dating phase, elevating a different set of “three little words” to the pantheon of important relational dialogue. Read more on why discussing “What are we?” is an important part of creating a shared reality with healthy boundaries and expectations in a relationship.

Letters From Esther #29: New relationships are a part of life. So is ending them.

Six Essential Practices to Improve Listening Skills in Relationships

The way we listen shapes a conversation as much as the way we speak or respond. Nothing makes us feel more deeply connected than when we are engaged in a healthy balance of thoughtful speaking and hardcore listening. Read more on my six essential practices to improve listening in your relationships and learn to strike the delicate balance of receiving and reciprocating.

Letters From Esther #28: I couldn’t listen anymore and I snapped.

My monthly newsletter and workshop are meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships. This month's theme is: Listening.

Letters From Esther #37: Eroticism is an Art. But It’s Also a Practice.

Letters From Esther #36: Fighting with your Partner about Values?

Letters from Esther #35: The Last Time I Felt Free…

Letters From Esther #34: How Are You?

My monthly newsletter and workshop is meant to inspire you to reflect, act, and develop greater confidence and relational intelligence in all of your relationships.

Letters from Esther #32: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Letters From Esther #33: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions

Letters from Esther #31: Inviting Vulnerability

Letters From Esther #30: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships

The Best Steamy Movie Scenes—And Why You Should Indulge

There is something to be said for the specific elixir of escapism and engagement that a great sex scene can inspire in us, whether we’re watching alone or with a partner, in bed or cozied up on the couch with candles lit. Read more for a collection of steamy movie scenes from Esther and our community, and why you should indulge.

Why Eroticism Should Be Part of your Self-Care Plan

Self-care isn’t just about facemasks and mindfulness. It’s about tuning into our bodies and letting them teach us what we like, what we don’t like, and what we don’t know about ourselves yet. Read more about what it means to incorporate eroticism into your self-care plan and why it's important.

Why Do Sexual Taboos Make Up Our Sexual Fantasies?

Is your sexual fantasy normal? In short, yes. Our sexual fantasies, and the taboos they contain, are symbolic maps of our deepest needs and wishes. Accessing that vulnerability can turn our sex lives from a ledger into something so much greater, but getting there is a taboo in and of itself. It means talking about it. Read more about sexual fantasies and how they're more normal than you may think.

How Erotic Thinking Helps Emotional Connection

Creativity is where Eroticism lives. No matter how effective our routines have been—or how much we’ve even enjoyed them—if they’re not filled with creativity, they inevitably leave us numb. Read more on how eroticism helps emotional connection.

How to Introduce Role Play Ideas To Your Partner

Role play and fantasy are playful opportunities to break routines and enhance excitement and pleasure in the bedroom. We all have imaginative resources that allow us to play and be curious and to ask ourselves: what would it look and feel like to be intimate together in a different way? Read more on simple steps to help you introduce role play ideas to your partner.

Finding Freedom in What Feels Good: 3 Reasons to Embrace Foreplay

Contrary to popular assumptions, foreplay is so much more than just the physical suggestion that kick-starts sex. Let’s adjust the lens. Read more on three reasons to embrace foreplay as the freedom to experience what feels good, for no other goal than pure pleasure—from a quick warmup to lasting erotic energy.

Bringing Home the Erotic: 5 Ways to Create Meaningful Connections with Your Partner

Many of us, when it comes to sexuality, tend to do what we think we should do rather than what we’d like to be doing. We get stuck in ruts and disconnect from our imaginations. Read more about how to overcome your obstacles to desire and create meaningful connections with your partner.

Feeling Touch-Starved? How Our Sense of Touch Keeps Us Radically Connected to Ourselves

Our sense of touch is a powerful tool for self-care. Nothing can replace the touch from a loved one, but this period of distance from others gives us an opportunity to explore a type of physical intimacy we often neglect: that which lives inside of us. Read more about why self-touch is important for the relationship we have with ourselves and how it can help us through this moment in time.

Articles

Letters from Esther #61: The Art of Erotic Communication

Our Comfort with Intimacy Has A Lot to do with These 7 Verbs

Letters from Esther #31: Inviting Vulnerability

In Long-Term Relationships, When Do You Find Yourself Most Drawn to Your Partner?

Letters From Esther #30: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships

The Other 3 Little Words: I Love You, But—What Are We?

Letters From Esther #29: New relationships are a part of life. So is ending them.

Six Essential Practices to Improve Listening Skills in Relationships

Letters From Esther #28: I couldn’t listen anymore and I snapped.

Letters From Esther #37: Eroticism is an Art. But It’s Also a Practice.

Letters From Esther #36: Fighting with your Partner about Values?

Letters from Esther #35: The Last Time I Felt Free…

Letters From Esther #34: How Are You?

Letters from Esther #32: Should I Stay or Should I Go?

Letters From Esther #33: Making and Breaking Wedding Traditions

Letters from Esther #31: Inviting Vulnerability

Letters From Esther #30: Appreciating Otherness in Relationships

The Best Steamy Movie Scenes—And Why You Should Indulge

Why Eroticism Should Be Part of your Self-Care Plan

Why Do Sexual Taboos Make Up Our Sexual Fantasies?

How Erotic Thinking Helps Emotional Connection

How to Introduce Role Play Ideas To Your Partner

Finding Freedom in What Feels Good: 3 Reasons to Embrace Foreplay

Bringing Home the Erotic: 5 Ways to Create Meaningful Connections with Your Partner

Feeling Touch-Starved? How Our Sense of Touch Keeps Us Radically Connected to Ourselves

You can also browse articles, Letters from Esther, and Podcast Episodes in our “Focus On” sections, where we group resources based on important relational topics.