Love it or hate it, Valentine’s Day is upon us, and if you are one half of a happy couple, there might be some expectation on you to deliver a heartfelt gift.
Gifts are lots of fun (sign me up!), but I would choose an experience over a material object (almost) any day, and one activity that is always on my radar is partner yoga.
Nowadays, the pictures we tend to see of partner yoga are really AcroYoga, which is an acrobatic style of yoga where one person is the base and the other is the flyer. This is a lot of fun, but it requires considerable practice and patience as well as strength and flexibility. I can see why someone would see that and think partner yoga wasn’t an option for their Valentine’s Day date.
But it is. A basic partner yoga class is a beautiful Valentine’s Day date idea. Many studios know this, and will be offering a special class on February 14. Check your local schedules!
These classes are generally beginner-friendly and are focused more on the two of you than on doing anything especially worthy of a yoga magazine cover photo. You might do poses like wide-leg forward fold with your backs toward each other, so you see each other upside down through your legs as you bend forward, or a seated twist where you lock hands as you twist in opposite directions.
This is why I love partner yoga and think it is the ultimate Valentine’s Day date.
Physical Connection
You’ll have to touch each other. There’s almost no way around it. And this touching is so useful, because you’ll actually be helping each other move into the poses and supporting each other in the poses. It’s incredibly powerful.
You might also find you’re touching in ways you normally don’t, like your arm against your partner’s leg, or the soles of your feet against your partner’s.
Trust
Did you ever do that experiment where you fall backward off a stage into the waiting arms of your co-workers or teammates? Partner yoga is kind of like that. There will be times when you might be relying on your partner for balance and stability. You’ll learn to trust each other to keep from falling.
Humor and Play
We don’t always laugh at ourselves enough in yoga, but when you’ve got a partner attempting the same moves you are, it’s easy to let go and laugh. Let it be playful and fun.
Comfort Zone Removal
Unless you both practice yoga regularly, this will likely be somewhat outside of your comfort zone. (And even if you do practice regularly, doing it together changes the dynamic immensely.) But that’s a good thing! Shaking things up in one area sets the stage to shake things up in another, and unless your relationship is already perfect (congrats!), you probably have some room for some shaking. It’s easy to get comfortable, then complacent, in a relationship, but that’s not fun and it certainly won’t help you grow as a person or as a couple. Challenging your comfort zone like this benefits you as individuals and together.
Balance of Power
No one can really “take the lead” in a partner yoga class. It requires you both to complete the poses yourselves. Often, the balance is off in our relationships–maybe one partner is more invested in the relationship, or one tends to step up and book the trips, order the meals, and pay the bills. Â Partner yoga puts you on an even playing field.
Union
You might be asked to look into your partner’s eyes and sync your breathing–not something most of us are doing over our morning coffee, but it’s a powerful exercise for building intimacy in a relationship. Yoga means “union” and partner yoga is a perfect opportunity to connect with the person you love.
Have you ever tried partner yoga?