When you’re living in what I call the “simmer zone” you’re feeling loved up and connected. In this space sex is both less important as you’re already feeling so good together yet also easier because you are feeling so good together! It’s a wonderful paradox that normally does lead to regular quality lovemaking throughout life.

Let me recap my ‘thermostat’ model of relating in case you’re not familiar with it, so that this term makes sense. It’s how I conceptualise sex and intimacy in a committed relationship.

Imagine you each have a thermostat of connection, which indicates how connected you are feeling. Zero degrees (this is Celsius for the Americans reading this) is being disconnected, because your mind is elsewhere, you’re not focused on your partner; and 100 degrees is in the throes of glorious lovemaking, ultimate connection.

Now, you don’t want to get physically intimate, and certainly not genitally intimate, until you are at least at 70 degrees. You need to already be ‘simmering’. That is, you need to be feeling good about each other, feeling connected, with no bad feeling between you and in a good space yourself. It’s beyond being good teammates in the logistics of life, those are the lower temperatures of the thermostat; it’s beyond feeling like good friends who really like each other, which are the middle temperatures of the thermostat; it’s getting into that ‘lover’ zone, where you’re really sharing your love energy that’s been potentized by your vital life force sexual energy. There’s a palpable, positive energy between you, one that goes beyond just “I love you” to “Mmm, I love you!”.

If you’re not in the simmer zone you’re not ready for sex, not physically, emotionally, relationally, spiritually. You might still be able to do it, but it won’t feel great. It might be functional, you might hit some quantitative KPIs, but probably it will feel disconnected, lonely, and even invasive.

So, learn to get into and stay in the simmer zone!

It starts from the moment you wake up and have a positive interaction. It’s all the micro-connections, what I call ‘relationship vitamins’ – the smiles, glances, touches, positive comments throughout the day. It’s creating spaces in your life where you can enjoy each other’s company, from a daily chat over a cup of tea or glass of wine, through to shared hobbies, dates and trips away together. It’s about actively and consciously investing in your relationship so that it stays strong and connected. And it’s about learning to manage challenges so they don’t blow up, and learning to repair well when they do.

To live in the simmer zone, you need to learn the skills to be relational and hone those skills. Then you’ll find that you’re investing in your relationship and creating a great love life, all life through and all life long!

You need a dance of initiation. You need to move towards a sexual encounter with playful, flirtatious, sexy, romantic exchanges. It’s part of the setting up and getting in the mood. In the early days of a relationship, it’s all the dance, but in a long-term relationship people very often stop dancing. Without the dance, with just a dry ‘Do you want to have sex?’ the response is just a “meh, nah” because there’s nothing there to entice, to create the exchange, to create the mood.

The language you use, and the style of interaction is so crucial to creating this dance. It’s the art of seduction, the art of getting the other person to do what you want – for your mutual pleasure of course!

Let’s start with what not to do. There are two common approaches that don’t work:

• Don’t ask permission.

Framing the approach with “Can we… [have sex/have an early night/get naked in the bedroom/etc]?” is not sexy. It feels like you’re begging, asking for permission, and it puts the pressure on the other person to say yes or no. Even if you ask politely – Can we please…? It sounds even more pleading!

Sexiness comes from mutuality, not one person feeling like a supplicant and the other having a power to say yes or no that they don’t actually want. It leaves them with a binary response that is either letting you down if it’s a no or potentially agreeing to something that they’re not really wanting so as not to let you down. This is not happy making for either person.

• Don’t ask if the other person wants to do what you want.

Questions like: “Do you want to … [have sex/have an early night/get naked in the bedroom/etc]?” like the asking permission approach, is putting the pressure on the other person. This is not fair, not sexy, and doesn’t get what you want.

Now let's look at what you need to do. There are five steps to the approach that does work.

• Share of self.

You’re the one who wants it, so say that it’s what you want. That sharing of self is showing a vulnerability that draws the other person in. You’re not pressuring them to want what you want, you’re just sharing.

“Hey babe, I’m feeling like…” “I’m in the mood for…” “I was thinking that while the kids are off with your mother that I wouldn’t mind…”

• Offer a suggestion

When you share of yourself, it’s important to state it in a way that sounds like a suggestion rather than demanding. Notice the examples above sound like suggestions, offers, rather than demands. You’re not saying: “I want to have sex now.”

The suggestion allows for that most arousing of things – anticipation. It might just be a small moment, but when that moment is rich with potential, with anticipation, it gives it an erotic charge that is the essence of the dance.

• Let them respond

Then you invite them to respond with where they’re at. Make sure you ask an open question, not a closed question. A closed question has a yes/no answer, which in these situations can create pressure: “I’m thinking I wouldn’t mind spending some time in the bedroom. Do you want to?” Can you see how that puts the other person in the dilemma of answering with a yes or no?

Instead, ask how they feel about your suggestion: “I’d like to… How would that be for you? How does that sound? Where are you at with that suggestion? Thoughts? I’m curious to know how you feel about that suggestion…” Can you see how those phrases allow the other person to express how they really do feel about your suggestion. There’s no pressure to say yes or no.

It's from here that there can be a playful, flirty interaction to create a situation where you both want to proceed, or to postpone for a while, or to not go ahead with that suggestion but come up with some other mutually pleasurable option.

• Be enticing in vocabulary, tone and body language

Notice how the language I’m using here is soft and suggestive. It’s a little vague, not too direct. This makes it enticing. It enables the other to engage without pressure and opens the possibility for the dance, for the erotic feeling to emerge, for desire to grow and the mood to be created. When you also make sure you are looking at each, smiling, it draws the other in as an equal, and allows the two of you to have a light interaction that starts creating the mood. Even if the dance leads to postponing or doing something else, the erotic connection lingers and is still hovering when the right time does occur.

• Know it’s the non-linear model

Remember that it’s a non-linear model of sex. I’ve written about this in many other blog posts. There’s no pressure to go through all the steps until you “finish”. You just engage where you’re at in that moment. A kiss is just a kiss, not an entrée to intercourse, unless that’s where the encounter mutually leads you. It’s simply about connection through pleasure, moment by moment.

When you engage in this way, you do it all through life. In fact life becomes a dance. And you’re living in the ‘simmer zone’ of connection!

I find that too much of our language and concepts around sex imply that speed is good and slowness is bad. This is really not at all helpful in creating great sexual experiences. Instead of people relaxing and chilling and opening to each other, there’s pressure to get aroused quickly and have intense experiences. And if there’s one thing that gets in the way of being able to become aroused, let alone to actually enjoy sex, it’s pressure.

For example, recent additions to our sex vocabulary are sexual ‘accelerators’ and sexual ‘brakes’, with the accelerators being good and the brakes being bad. Now I know that the intention behind the language is to identify what things are helpful to you sexually and what are hindrances. But why use language that implies speed is good and slowness is bad? Why not use terms like enhancers and detractors? Or as I like to think of it, in my usual evocative style, things that make you go ‘mmm’ and things that make you go ’ngh’.

Less overtly, so often people have a speed-based concept of sex. Take the concept of libido, more often ‘high libido’ is attributed to people who get aroused quickly and  ‘low libido’ is attributed to people who become aroused slowly. And of course those with ‘low libido’ are seen as the problem. Why, because they are too slow. Which often leads to the slower one having sex before they’re ready, which,as  I’ve said before, is like eating food that’s undercooked – there’s nothing wrong with the food per se, it’s just not ready to be eaten.

But, like food, sex is best enjoyed slowly, with presence, savouring the experience of the eating. Not scoffing it down to get to the end. Or any other activity you do for pleasure together, like going for a walk or enjoying a show – you enjoy the process of the activity, not race through to the end of it!

So, whether it’s in the getting to sex phase or the having sex phase, take your time, enjoy the process, no pressure! Remember, the point of sex is connection through pleasure, so make every part pleasurable and connecting. It’s not what you do, it’s how you do it, how you’re experiencing it.

There is already so much speed in modern life. Take the pressure off, particularly in the bedroom, and take your time, savour your lovemaking. You’ll find it so much more enjoyable, connecting and rejuvenating – all the things sex is supposed to be!

The best sex is rarely spontaneous. Or if it is, it’s because the conditions were right for it be ‘spontaneous’.

People often complain to me that their sex isn’t spontaneous. As though that’s a bad thing. They often reminisce about the early days when sex was so easy and apparently ‘spontaneous’. But, I challenge them, was it really spontaneous? I point out that back then sex was anything but spontaneous: there were days of anticipation, thinking about your new love interest, you’d spend time preparing to meet, looking good. Then when you met, you’d be doing interesting things, you were fascinated in each other, you’d spend hours talking or dancing or having fun. So, by the time you got home you couldn’t wait to rip your clothes off….

That wasn’t spontaneous. There were days and hours of looking forward to, thinking about, engaging with, before you got sexual.

Then time passes and people move in together, and all of life comes into the relationship: work, logistics, kids, finances, etc., etc. They work all day, deal with life matters, maybe sit in front of a screen for an hour or more… then collapse into bed exhausted, totally spent… and think they should suddenly turn into some ravenous sex fiend and have spontaneous sex!

No. It wasn’t spontaneous at the beginning. It was good because the conditions were right. Like anything else good in life. Think about it – how often has an experience been spontaneously good? Occasionally perhaps, but not regularly. You want to catch up with friends, go to a show, play some sport, have a holiday, cook a good meal – it all takes planning, making space in your life, making sure you have in place the elements that make it good. If you want a good meal you have to make sure your kitchen is stocked with the right ingredients, you need the time and energy to cook, and have the knowledge and skills to cook well. If you have all of those, then yes, you can spontaneously cook a good meal.

So, if you want to ‘spontaneously’ have good sex, you can if you’ve set up your life to enable sex to happen easily. That means you need to:

• create the time and space in your life
• not be too tired
• not be too distracted
• be feeling connected with your partner
• be in a relaxed, appealing environment
• pace the approach and interaction so that you both become aroused, don’t rush it
• know what each other likes and needs in general
• be able to communicate what you want and need in the moment
• not have expectations that cause pressure and anxiety
•  enjoy the pleasure of connection and co-create a lovely experience moment by moment

Have all that happening, and you’ll live in what I call the ‘simmer zone’, where you’re feeling loved-up, connected, relaxed and alive. From that space sex can be spontaneous, because you’ve made your life and relationship sex-friendly.

One of the biggest impediments to a good sex life that I see over and over again, is the assumption that certain activities must inevitably lead to sex. These activities, a look, a touch, a kiss, are seen as a ‘green light’ that leads to the chain of events generally referred to as ‘sex’ which have as their main KPIs intercourse (if you’re heterosexual) and orgasms (whatever your orientation).

So, if at the point of the ‘green light’ – the kiss, the hug, the touch, etc – you don’t feel like any of the ‘subsequent’ activities along the chain of events, you will avoid the ‘green light’. You don’t want to give your partner ‘the wrong idea’, you don’t want to ‘lead them on’, to let them down or disappoint them or alternatively have to go through with something that you don’t want to do at that point in time.

Which leads to many people not doing those activities at all. But by not doing those things, you miss out on enormous amounts of pleasurable connection. And you also miss out on the possibility of becoming aroused enough to want to do more sexual activities.

So, rather than assuming the linear progression of this-must-lead-to-that – that a kiss for instance must lead to sex, take the pressure off and enter into any connecting activity with the knowledge that it just is what it is in that moment. A kiss is just a kiss.

Without the pressure of expectation, you can lose yourself in the enjoyment of the interaction, enjoying the kiss or the hug or the shower or the massage or whatever it is. You can trust your partner, and yourself, not to assume anything further without checking in and knowing that you both want to take it further. This creates a psychological safety that allows you to relax and enjoy yourself. And that psychological safety is also what’s needed to become aroused.

I really believe that one of the elements to having quality on-going sex is to be able to connect in this way. I call it non-linear lovemaking. No expectations! If either of you wants to take the encounter further, you make the suggestion and see where the other is at. And the real art is to do this in a way that is erotic, enticing and playful, so that whatever eventuates, it’s light, mutual and desired. You don’t want to ask permission or be heavy or pragmatic. You want it to be a joyful co-creation. Sometimes the activities and subsequent suggestions will lead to lengthier lovemaking and sometimes they’ll just be lovely encounters on their own. But those frequent lovely encounters are what keep couples connected in a way that makes sexual encounters easier. So it’s a win-win. You have lots of lovely connection all through life and you have plenty of sexual encounters too!

When it comes to sex, we tend to buy into the myth that bigger, harder, faster is best. While that approach might make for entertaining viewing on screen, what looks good is not necessarily what feels good. What feels good is a balance and a flow between the yin and the yang elements of sex. 

No doubt you are familiar with the Taoist concept of yin and yang, that the whole is made up of complementary opposites. Yin represents the softer, flowing side of life and yang represents the firmer, directed side. Too much of either puts us out of balance and life is not as harmonious as it could be. This applies just as much in our sex life as in the whole of life. In fact, we need the balance in the whole of life to have it in our sex life. Part of the problem is seeing sex as something separate from the rest of life. Thinking of sex as just what happens between two sets of genitals is a big part of the problem, it’s too linear and too detached, too yang.

When we take sex out of the ‘box’, and look at it less as an isolated behaviour separate from life, and view it more systemically, then we stay in a more balanced state sexually. Let’s look at this more specifically.

Starting with the physiology of our bodies, a lot of people would consider the yin and yang of sex as bluntly as being turned on or turned off, which is way too binary - there’s a lot more going on behind all that! What turns us on and turns us off, what enables desire and what dampens it, is a complex interplay within and between our nervous and endocrine systems.

Our nervous system is constantly flowing between the yang, up-regulated sympathetic system and the yin, down-regulated parasympathetic systems. If we are too much in the sympathetic, we’re stressed and we can’t become sexually aroused. Yet if we are too much in the parasympathetic, we’re so down-regulated we fall asleep, and can’t become aroused that way either. We need to be in a balance between the two, in a state of alert-relaxation, and from there flow between more yin parasympathetic romance and tenderness as well as more yang sympathetic system passion and excitement.

Now, in parallel within our nervous system there’s a balance between what we could consider the ‘yin’ hormones of oxytocin and vasopressin, the bonding hormones that give feelings of connection, as well as the endorphins, the feel-good hormones, that are released by tender, cuddly, yin activities; and the yang hormones of dopamine, the reward chemical, that leads you to want more (including more of your true love), and norepinephrine which makes you feel excited.

We need dopamine and norepinephrine, which are stimulated by novelty and interesting activities, so it's important that your relationship is stimulating and not complacent. And we need oxytocin and vasopressin as they are connecting and keep you feeling safe and connected and generally good about each other. So, both the tender affection and interesting activities are necessary in a relationship to produce the balance of bonding and desire. You need to be both tender and flirty, having cuddles on the couch as well as exciting adventures, to create both connection and interest. 

You need the balance in the lead up to sex and you need the balance during sex. Intensity is fine, but if all you’re having is shagadelic sex, striving for orgasmic intensity, then it’s yang without yin. Particularly if it’s tense intensity, which tends to happen if you go too fast too quickly and aren’t ready for it, as this produces cortisol, the long-term stress hormone, which is not good for feeling positive about yourself or your partner.

The focus on intensity, tension and orgasmic climax can also cause a dopamine drop after the big O, leading to a feeling of withdrawal from your partner as well as feeling irritated and disconnected. You need the oxytocin and vasopressin so that you balance out the dopamine drop and keep the happy feelings going. 

What’s happening physiologically then manifests experientially as a flow between the yin and yang emotions – tenderness and passion, romance and eroticism. 

When I talk to clients and others about this approach to sex, many people are so mired in the linear intense approach that they have no concept of what I’m talking about. So, I use metaphors to convey the concept.

A very simple metaphor is music. The standard view of sex is like heavy thrash metal - only intense. Very few us like that kind of music, it’s way too much! Yet we tend to approach sex like that. So ,think of sex more like a symphony, where you have quiet passages as well as more intense passages. There’s a journey in the music, not just one long lead-up to a grand finale.

My favourite metaphor is to think of sex like a picnic. There are no rules as to what you should eat in terms of order, pace and quantity. As enticing as pavlova might be, you don’t have to eat it to have a ‘successful’ picnic, and eating pavlova is certainly not why you’re having a picnic. You’re having a picnic because the whole experience is enjoyable, even if you only eat the dips, and even if you don’t eat at all and just enjoy the conversation.

When you get into a flow, instead of taking a linear direct approach to the main KPI of orgasm, and instead sink into a flowing encounter, each encounter becomes a unique co-creation of mutual pleasure and satisfaction.

How to do this? Most importantly, keep the balance and flow in the whole of your life and relationship. I call this beforeplay. It’s the bulk of life, making sure there’s a balance of the calm, cuddly, safe yin elements as well as the more exciting, flirty, active yang elements of relating. In this way your relationship never becomes complacent, you are always focused on keeping yourselves connected and engaged.

Then when it comes to more intimate engagement, don’t go racing straight to the genitals! Make sure there is plenty of non-genital engagement – which includes having good conversation and connecting mentally as much as engaging with your entire bodies and enjoying the feeling of kisses and touch and whole of body skin contact. Don’t get genital until your body really wants it.

Pay attention to how you’re feeling on the inside, and make sure you are letting each other know how you’re feeling and what you’re wanting. Never make assumptions. Learn to communicate both verbally and non-verbally at all stages of engagement, so that you don’t fall into the same old tired linear script.

Focus on pleasure rather than orgasm. Orgasms are great, but they are an outcome of sex, not the purpose of sex. When you focus on the pleasure, rather than just ‘getting each other off’, you’ll find sex way more satisfying. Not that there is anything wrong with orgasms! But don’t assume you have to have them, or else you’ve ‘failed’. Nor limit yourself to one and think you’re done if there is more love-making to be expressed in an encounter! And when you do orgasm, focus on opening and releasing rather than tensing and forcing.

Never underestimate the importance of a conducive environment. Let your surroundings help get you in the mood. Having a beautiful tidy bedroom with music and soft lighting really does help a lot of people sink into the enjoyment of erotic connection (not to mention practicalities like having a lock on the door!)

And make sure that when the encounter comes to a close you continue to cuddle and chat so that you keep your nervous systems relaxed and the calming pleasure hormones flowing.

This approach to love and life means that you are priming your body to have balanced neural and endocrine systems on the inside, which manifests as pleasure, connection and all the good things about love and sex on the outside!
 

Feeling awkward in sex is perfectly normal, natural and ok. Even if you've been with the same person for a long time, things can get awkward. Maybe you haven't been sexual for a while, and it feels awkward. Or maybe you're trying something new, and it feels awkward. Or maybe you've been coming to see me and I'm asking you to do homework that feels a little bit awkward. Maybe one of you is feeling awkward or you're both feeling awkward. It's all ok.

The best thing to do when you're feeling awkward is just to acknowledge it. So one of you might say: "I'm feeling a little awkward about this," and the other will reply reassuringly: "That's ok sweetheart, you're safe, it's ok, anything I can do to help?" Or maybe you're both feeling awkward, and one says "I'm feeling a little awkward about this," and the other replies with "Yeah, I am too!" and then you can have a nice chat and a cuddle, feel more secure and then give it a go. Admitting you're feeling awkward gets it out in the open, clears it.

Whereas if you keep it on the inside and push on through, the awkwardness tends to come through anyway, in ways that aren't very sexy. That's if you even push on through, very commonly the awkward feeling stops people from doing anything at all.

Sometimes people cover awkwardness with humour, but it's not funny humour, often it can be a juvenile, often blunt, attempt at sexual humour that feels cringy, coarse or sleazy: "He he, let's go play hide the sausage in the bun". It's not at all ressuring and soothing - and not at all sexy. So try not to make jokes to cover your awkwardness.

Another thing people do, again, it's juvenile, but this time in a coy, babylike way. Often they put on saccharine baby voices: "Ooh, let's go do naughty things in the bedroom". I see couples do this in the clinic, and it is very cringy. It's not mature and it's not sexy.

Just be honest. Be adult. Be clean. Put any negative feelings on the table. Let each other know where you're at and what you're feeling. And then you can genuinely give it a go in a mutual, supportive way - and that is sexy.

I’m always hearing clients say that one initiates, or one doesn’t, or used to, or whatever. It’s always framed as though initiation is something one partner does, with a question, a suggestion or an action, to which the other agrees or rejects.

It’s a pretty limited, unidirectional way of thinking about initiation. It puts a lot of pressure on each partner. Both can feel pretty powerless. The one initiating has to be brave, hope the other is receptive, and risk rejection. The one responding to the initiation doesn’t have much scope to reply other than yes or no, with the yes assuming a lot and the no risking the other feeling rejected with all the consequential grumpiness or resentment that might follow.

No wonder people are reluctant to initiate, it’s fraught with anxiety, pressure, expectation, fear, guilt – none of which are in any way erotic feelings!

So, let’s ditch that approach to initiating and move towards one that is much more creative and explorative and allows for infinite possibilities.

Think of initiation as a dance between the two of you. It’s a lot more subtle and creative. It can start in many ways, usually less direct than a question or request. There is suggestion, flirtation, hints, without any definite outcome in mind. The other responds in kind. This dance both avoids the unsexy yes/no binary that unilateral initiating leads to, and allows for playfulness, sensuality, sexiness which can actually create interest, desire and arousal.

If you take on board the non-linear approach to lovemaking that I advocate, then there is no pressure for the dance to lead anywhere other than to connection and pleasure, so the dance is already ‘sex’ because it is already pleasure and connection. Then the dance continues until you’ve had enough, with or without genital involvement, orgasms, and the usual KPIs of linear sex.

This dance of initiation is a lovely way to connect, share, co-create, and live a life that in many ways is always the dance!

Some clients confessed to me recently that their bedroom activity has become sitting in bed on their phones “like two passengers in business class”. Each in their own little world and no connection between them at all. It’s pretty dire.

Sadly though, it’s so common. If there’s one issue that comes up over and over again in sessions, it’s phone use. They are so enticing, so readily accessible, and so utterly absorbing.

When you’re on your phone, you’re not with your partner. Your consciousness has been sucked into that alternate reality, you are not here and now, you are there.

Now of course phones are amazing technology and incredibly beneficial when you engage with them in an active manner. The problem is when you passively lose yourself in them. There’s none of you left here. Active engagement with phones is good, part of you is aware of what you are doing and is making conscious choices about how to engage and how long to engage. Passive engagement is a zombie-like absorption into another dimension where there’s little conscious control of what you’re doing and how long you’re there for.

 There are three impacts on your relationship when you don't manage your phone use well:

1. As an individual you’re not getting proper relaxation time. Instead, you’re engaging in mindless time-wasting which leaves you feeling jangled and not rejuvinated.
2. You’re wasting precious ‘us’ time, time where you can connect and enjoy each other’s company, relaxing together.
3. You miss out on the ‘chilled build’ which couples need to connect and create desire for lovemaking. So, sex becomes less frequent and poorer quality.

What to do? Have a phone policy! And support each other to keep it.

I recommend you put your phones to the side at times when you can maximise connection, such as when you’re having dinner or going for a walk. And I insist that you put your phones aside in the bedroom. Some couples successfully ban phones altogether in the bedroom, which I admire. However, they are useful, and with discipline you can have them in the bedroom. The important thing is to make sure you put them down when you are both in the bedroom to make sure you have quality time together before you pick up your phone (at which point you might not want to as other more delectable activities are occurring!)

We need to accept that it is difficult to manage our phones, they are very very enticing. It takes mental will and discipline to manage their use. So, support each other kindly in creating and implementing an approach that works for you as individuals and as a couple. That way you can have all the benefits of phones and all the benefits of a connected, sexual relationship!

Q: We’re all so time poor these days, but booking in for a ‘romance’ night with my partner seems a bit pre-meditated. But the occasional dull and brief late-night sex we have leaves a lot to be desired. How can I add some zing?

A: There’s a myth in our society that good sex has to be spontaneous. Which is like saying a good meal has to be spontaneous. In fact it’s quite the opposite, the better the meal usually the more focus and time is put into it. Otherwise you get McDonalds. It’s the same with sex. Give it the focus it needs or you end up with MacDonald’s sex – dull and not very satisfying.

People often reminisce about the early days of their romance when it was supposedly spontaneous, but in fact there was a huge amount of lead-up and anticipation. You’d be thinking all week of Saturday night and what you’d wear, what you’d do, where you’d go…Fast forward several years and you slob around the house in your flannel jammies, spend the evenings engrossed in anything but each other, fall exhausted into bed at 11pm and wonder why you can’t be bothered!

If you want good sex in an on-going relationship you’ve got to create the time and the space to get the two of you in the mood, yearning for each other, just like you used to.

It starts way before the bedroom. Ideally it should start the moment you wake up and smile as you gaze over at your partner. Those small acts of affection should continue throughout the day, to build intimacy and raise erotic tension (I call it the ‘mmm’ factor!)

Once evening comes you need to chill out together. Being in each other’s company and enjoying each other’s company is the key to good sex. So set aside at least one evening a week for a nooky night. Don’t veg out in front of the TV or surf the net or catch up on emails or clean the house. Once the kids are in bed, it’s you time. Soft lights, music, a glass of wine and thou. This is transition time from the busyness of your day to a relaxed space where you can gently open up to each other.

By the time you get the bedroom you’ll be feeling pretty good about each other, and the ‘mmm’ factor will be simmering, if not boiling! Now, use your bedroom to put you even more in the mood. Make sure it’s a boudoir, a sanctuary away from the stress of life, a place that when you enter, you leave the world behind. Soft lighting, candles, music, beautiful bed linen, whatever makes you soften and open.

And then…it’s playtime! Take your time, treat sex more as a picnic than as a race towards a finish. Gaze into each other’s eyes, touch all over, use props, whatever. Be light and playful, use your imagination, enjoy each other’s bodies and get into a flow. Playful, wild, sensual, wherever it takes you. Just not dull.

Create the time, create the space.