Be it in the bedroom or just out in the world, the start of a new year is a great time to take stock and examine our trajectories to figure out if what we find is affirming – or in need of some adjustment.
What follows is a list of romance-related resolutions for the coming year, and it’s been said that to make these annual goals real, you should write them down. These resolutions come from a real place, in the hopes that you, the reader, might see some that stick out to you in order to apply them to your own life.
Here’s to 2024!
1. Get Tested
Just gonna jump right into the deep end here. Most STIs are asymptomatic – meaning you could have them (and be passing them along) but have no idea. According to the American Sexual Health Association, 1 in 2 sexually active people will contract an STD by the age of 25.
Commit more to keep yourself and your partners protected by speaking very frankly with a medical professional about your sex life and they’ll give you an idea of how often you should get tested and what you should be getting tested for. Untreated STDs can affect long-term health in all sorts of ways, so it never hurts to go get tested.
2. Limber Up
If you’re anything like us, you’ve sat in front of a computer for more hours of the day than you should be, especially with the rising popularity of work-from-home that this year has brought us. Make the commitment to using your body more and preparing it for the day with a stretching session.
Getting loose with some simple stretches promotes better circulation and will have you moving your body in ways that it normally wouldn’t during the regular day. A couple of go-to yoga poses you can fire off in ten minutes between waking and getting started with your morning routine will give you a stretch-out and activate some of your muscle groups to keep you limber, get your blood flowing, and can even strengthen your pelvic floor muscles.
3. Lube Up
Okay, here it goes: More and more often, whether alone or with a partner, we find ourselves in need of some lube, but keeping a bottle on the bedside table somehow feels like crossing the line. But, if applying some lube can instantly add a new dimension to sex, why the heck not? A small drop can make all the difference, so keep condoms and sex toy-safe lube on hand, just in case.
Better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it, right?
4. Let Go of the Goal
In 2021, go to bed with someone – a casual hook-up or your S.O. – without a goal in mind: the usual goal here being orgasm, of course. Just be close, get those love and lust endorphins flowing, and let things happen as they will. Actually, most people look at orgasm as the goal of sexual activity, but they neglect everything else that comes with intimacy.
‘Going to bed with someone’ isn’t just a quaint way of describing sex. Going to bed and exploring each other’s wants, or simply being close, is a great way to discover more about a new intimate partner, or even rediscover what originally attracted us to our long-term partners in the first place.
Okay, so what are you resolved to do or not do in 2022? Cut out sugar? Cut back on frivolous spending? Tell us what it is, and a little about how you plan to do it, in the comments section!