Partner Activities: Tantra-Specific Exercises to Strengthen Your Bond
In Tantra, each practice focuses on cultivating an awareness of the body’s energy and the energy shared with a partner. By intentionally connecting through breath, touch, and presence, tantric exercises help couples access deeper layers of intimacy and healing. These practices often involve working with prana—the life force or energy that flows through us—and guiding it with intention to promote harmony, trust, and closeness. Below are some exercises to help couples explore non-sexual intimacy through a tantric lens, building a more profound energetic bond.
1. Heart-to-Heart Breathing
Heart-to-heart breathing in Tantra is about sharing energy and synchronizing breath to experience unity. The heart is seen as the seat of love and compassion, and when two people align their breath, they’re sharing an energetic space that enhances their bond. In this exercise, you connect through your heart centers, fostering an intimate energy flow that can deepen feelings of trust, calmness, and mutual respect.
How to Practice:
- Sit close to your partner, placing your left hand on their heart while they place their left hand on yours.
- Close your eyes, tuning into each other’s heartbeats as you begin to breathe slowly and deeply.
- Visualize your breath carrying warmth and energy into your partner’s heart, forming a loop of shared energy between you.
- Stay in this connection for several minutes, allowing any emotions or sensations that arise to simply be observed.
This exercise promotes harmony in the relationship, connecting the heart energies to cultivate a deep and empathetic bond.
2. Mirror Gazing
Tantric mirror gazing, or eye gazing, is a practice designed to help partners connect on a soul level. In Tantra, the eyes are seen as windows to the soul and a channel for energetic exchange. Through eye contact, partners can experience vulnerability and openness, allowing their energies to meet in a nonverbal, deeply connective way.
How to Practice:
- Sit facing each other, close enough to maintain soft, uninterrupted eye contact.
- Start by breathing deeply, letting your gaze soften as you look into your partner’s left eye, an area believed to be directly linked to intuition and the soul.
- Focus on “seeing” beyond the physical appearance and into the energetic essence of your partner. This helps open up a channel for soul-level recognition and understanding.
- If emotions or discomfort arise, allow them to flow naturally without interruption.
Mirror gazing can dissolve walls between partners and create a bridge to understanding, as it provides a glimpse into each other’s energy, vulnerabilities, and essence.
3. The Tantric Hug
In Tantra, a hug is more than just physical touch; it’s an energy exchange that connects both partners at an intimate, soul-deep level. Through mindful, extended hugging, partners can share their energy fields, creating a calming and grounding effect. The Tantric Hug encourages a slow, peaceful embrace that enhances feelings of safety, comfort, and emotional closeness.
How to Practice:
- Stand close to your partner, wrapping your arms around them in a soft, intentional embrace.
- Align your breathing and allow yourselves to relax into each other’s presence, letting your energy fields overlap and flow together.
- With each breath, imagine your energies merging, creating a bubble of calm, warm energy around you both.
- Focus on the sensations, breathing together, and any feelings of unity or connection that arise.
By remaining in this hug without rushing, you and your partner can cultivate a space of security, acceptance, and non-verbal communication, fostering a deeper connection through shared energy.
4. Chakra Connection Meditation
Tantra emphasizes the alignment of energy centers, or chakras, as a way to harmonize and deepen connection with a partner. Each chakra is believed to govern different aspects of personal and relational wellbeing, from security and love to intuition and spiritual unity. Chakra connection meditation aligns each partner’s energy centers to create balance and facilitate a more profound energetic bond.
How to Practice:
- Sit facing each other with your spines straight and close enough that your chakras (from the base to the crown) align.
- Begin by focusing on each chakra, starting at the root and moving up to the crown. As you visualize energy connecting between you, focus on what each chakra represents:
- Root Chakra (Security): Ground yourselves in mutual stability.
- Sacral Chakra (Emotions & Creativity): Tune into shared emotional openness.
- Solar Plexus (Confidence): Share strength and mutual support.
- Heart Chakra (Love): Send and receive love with unconditional warmth.
- Throat Chakra (Communication): Open a channel for honest and open expression.
- Third Eye (Intuition): Tap into shared insights and intuition.
- Crown Chakra (Spirituality): Envision unity on a spiritual, energetic level.
Taking time to align each chakra nurtures emotional and energetic balance, creating a sense of harmony and wholeness.
5. Sacred Touch with Intention
In tantra, touch is considered a sacred form of connection, especially when it is done with awareness and intention. Sacred touch doesn’t just involve skin-to-skin contact; it’s a mindful exchange of energy, allowing one partner to “gift” their energy while the other receives it fully. By approaching touch with reverence and presence, partners can foster trust, openness, and relaxation.
How to Practice:
- Set aside time for this practice, making sure both partners feel open to giving and receiving touch.
- One partner sits comfortably while the other gently places their hands on them, focusing on infusing their touch with warmth, safety, and intention.
- Visualize energy flowing from your hands into your partner’s body, like a soothing current of calm energy.
- After a few minutes, switch roles, allowing each partner to both give and receive energy through touch.
Practiced regularly, sacred touch can create a foundation of trust and mutual support, fostering intimacy that honors both partners’ energetic boundaries.
Final Thoughts
These tantric exercises are designed to cultivate intimacy through shared presence, breath, and energy, helping couples create a space for mutual healing and connection. Each practice can help deepen the bond between partners by aligning their energies, bringing an awareness of shared breath, love, and emotional presence. Tantra encourages each couple to explore these activities with openness and to notice the subtle ways energy flows between them, creating a foundation for a more meaningful, intimate connection.