You can change your life in just seven minutes a day . . . A soft message for a hard time, The Promise of Love, Sex, and Intimacy is a simple yet profound solution to the cause of all human discontent: the lack of intimacy, especially sexual intimacy. Even amidst the plethora of techniques now available for so-called enlightenment—from meditation and visualization to intensive prayer retreats or obsessive exercise regimens— the need for intimacy has been left unsatisfied. Requiring just seven minutes a day, the practice taught in this book—called “Your Seven-Minute Wonder”—answers that need by opening the body and psyche to gratifying levels of personal and sexual intimacy. It is the practical means that allows you to tangibly realize your ideals and inherent perfection. Renowned teacher Mark Whitwell, who has spent a lifetime studying the secrets of life with the great masters, has seen through to the heart of their understanding, and created a simple way for readers to acquire it for themselves. “Your Seven-Minute Wonder” is a physical practice— a combination of healthful breathing sustained by synchronistic body movement. Its purpose is to be uplifting and totally functional: a dynamic interflow of “inspiration” or inhalation (receptivity), with the “expression” or exhalation (strength). This in-and-out breathing cycle, which Mark carefully delineates, activates the deep male-female polarity within each of us, regardless of gender. The practice is effortless for everyone, and practitioners report that their well-being, vitality, sexuality, self-awareness, and true desires are awakened immediately and dramatically. It restores health and dignity, and sex becomes utterly relevant to a graceful life. Further, as you become receptive to your breath—the basis of all human function—you become responsive to money, power, and collaboration of all sorts. The Promise of Love, Sex, and Intimacy is a wise, powerful, and easy-to-follow roadmap to a practice that can be life-changing: one that promises to open you up to an entirely new level of human understanding.

With exercises, practical tools, and inspiring stories, Deeper Dating will guide you on a journey to find the love—and personal fulfillment—you long for Lose weight. Be confident. Keep your partner guessing. At the end of the day, this soulless approach to dating doesn't lead to love but to insecurity and desperation. In Deeper Dating, Ken Page presents a new path to love. Out of his decades of work as a psychotherapist and his own personal struggle to find love, Page teaches that the greatest magnet for real love lies in our "Core Gifts"—the places of our deepest sensitivity, longing, and passion. Deeper Dating guides us to discover our own Core Gifts and empowers us to express them with courage, generosity, and discrimination in our dating life. When we do this, something miraculous happens: we begin to attract people who love us for who we are, we become more self-assured and emotionally available, and we lose our taste for relationships that chip away at our self-esteem. Without losing a pound, changing our hairstyle, or buying a single new accessory, we find healthy love moving closer . . . Deeper Dating integrates the best of human intimacy theory with timeless spiritual truths and translates them into a practical, step-by-step process.

Informal customs have become the norm for most young adults in matters of sexual intimacy. Unfortunately, the sexual revolution has not proven to be as beneficial to women as was hoped, and society offers young men little preparation for future roles as husbands and fathers. In this book, Father Piderit argues that a natural law approach to morality provides a grounded pathway toward marriage, and shows why these fairly traditional practices help young people find a partner whom they can realistically promise to love until death do them part. Offering theory but focusing on practice, this book helps young adults understand why sexual intimacy should be reserved for marriage. The first two sections develop the natural law basis for behavior. Father Piderit points out that natural law relies primarily on reason, not religion, and his explanation provides a way to understand a Christian approach to morality as grounded in nature. The final third of the book explores what religious practice and membership in a Christian denomination adds to the natural law approach. Father Piderit uses clear, practical examples to show that positive goals are what motivate human beings. By breaking down the potentially abstract concept of morality into a set of intuitive practices guided by natural law, Father Piderit provides young people and students with the tools to create a positive courtship and, ultimately, a solid marriage based on strong, shared values and mutual respect.

Love, sex, and marriage are changing faster than ever before in human history. The current tidal wave of social changes will continue into the next century, and we will have to adapt our sexual values and relationships to these accelerating changes. These 22 honest, authentic stories tell of the unconventional paths pioneering church leaders and spiritually-aware women and men have taken in their quest to link their sexuality with their spiritual needs. Some might see in these unorthodox explorations only tales of promiscuous couplings. But these are not stories of wild thrill-seekers. These are tales told from the core of their being about their deeply felt need for genuine, responsible love and intimacy within a spiritual context. Their journeys do not promise paradise or instant happiness, as popular magazines do with recipes for lifelong marital bliss and fiery passion. These sojourners have much to teach us, even when we decide that this or that path is not for us. Their individual paths are not nearly as important as the simple message of God and Eros being inseparable that underlies journey. God and Eros can come together in many different relationships. And they must come together if we want to nourish and fulfill the divine spark at the core of our being. These women and men challenge our assumptions and our willingness to adapt to our radically changing world.

Blends memoir and legal cases to show how contracts can create family relationships Most people think of love and contracts as strange bedfellows, or even opposites. In Love’s Promises, however, law professor Martha Ertman shows that far from cold and calculating, contracts shape and sustain families. Blending memoir and law, Ertman delves into the legal cases, anecdotes, and history of family law to show that love comes in different packages, each shaped by different contracts and mini-contracts she calls “deals.” Family law should and often does recognize that variety because legal rules, like relationships, aren’t one size fits all. The most common form of family—which Ertman calls “Plan A”—come into being through different kinds of agreements than the more uncommon families that she dubs “Plan B.” Recognizing the contractual core of all families shows that Plan B is neither unnatural nor unworthy of legal recognition, just different. After telling her own moving and often irreverent story about becoming part of a Plan B family of two moms and a dad raising a child, Ertman shows that all kinds of people—straight and gay, married and single, related by adoption or by genetics—use contracts to shape their relationships. As couples navigate marriage, reproductive technologies, adoption, and cohabitation, they encounter contracts. Sometimes hidden and other times openly acknowledged, these contracts ensure that the people they think of as “family” are legally recognized as family in the eyes of the law. Family exchanges can be substantial, like vows of fidelity, or small, like “I cook and you clean.” But regardless of scope, the agreements shape the emotional, social, and financial terrain of family relationships. Seeing the instrumental role contracts will help readers better understand how contracts and deals work in their own families as well as those around them. Both insightful and paradigm-shifting, Love’s Promises lets readers in on the power of contracts and deals to support love in its many forms and to honor the different ways that our nearest and dearest contribute to our daily lives.

Is ______ok in the bedroom? If I’m single, how far is too far? How do I get past my shame? Whether you are married or single, having great sex or no sex, your sexuality is inseparable from your spirituality. Sadly, most churches are silent on the subject. Dr. Juli Slattery is breaking the silence. In 25 Questions You're Afraid to Ask about Love, Sex, and Intimacy, she tackles the most common and critical questions women ask her about sexuality, like: What if I don’t like sex? Can I be single and sexual? Is masturbation a sin? How do I make time to make love? What if I want sex more than my husband does? Candid, wise, and practically minded, Dr. Slattery addresses matters like sexual abuse, pornography, betrayal in marriage, intimacy in the bedroom, singleness, and more, calling women to think biblically about all areas of their sexuality. Find answers to your questions, liberation from your fears, and freedom to explore God's good gifts of love, sex, and intimacy.

A narrative guide and practical methodology for nurturing and sustaining our relationships with ourselves, others, and the world. “With intimacy as the foundational principle of our existence, we can build a life based on what we truly need, not what we think we need or have been told we need. By embracing the practice of radical intimacy, I can confidently promise my readers a personal revolution of self-acceptance, appreciation, vitality, and confidence. And without fail, mind-blowing, soul-stirring, earth-shattering sex follows.”—Zoë Kors Part practical guide, part client stories, part personal narrative, Zoë Kors draws on her experience as a sex and intimacy coach, thought leader, and relationship writer in sharing her powerful and practical methodology for nurturing and sustaining our intimate relationships over time. She addresses the essential truth that is almost universally missed in discussions of sex and intimacy: We can meet each other only to the extent that we can meet ourselves. Kors guides the reader on a five‑part journey through nine areas of opportunity for deepening intimacy with themselves, their partner, and their world, inviting them to embrace emotional, physical, and energetic self‑mastery, which is required to skillfully relate with others. At the conclusion of each part, there are a collection of experiential exercises which support the reader in embodying the concepts they’ve just read. Voice-driven, accessible, and with the right amount of tough love, Radical Intimacy takes the mystery out of human connection. From academia and science to mysticism and self-development, Kors delivers a rich and varied understanding of human sexuality and intimacy through the lens of the body, brain, heart, spirit, and culture.

For an entire year. The Mullers had a solid marriage and two wonderful children, but over the years sex had fallen low on their to-do list. The lack of intimacy wasn't causing them to drift apart, exactly, but their connection didn't seem as great as it could be. Charla decided that the couple would emabrk on a year of scheduled sex -- falling over toy trucks and piles of laundry in an effort to make time for each other. There were obstacles along the way -- when disasters at work intruded on their home life and when there were questions about the sex itself and faking it. Would physical love -- whether good mediocre or ugly -- make up for things that weren't so good? Charla and her husband had a whole year to find out...

Many Christian books talk about sexual issues within broader works on marriage, but few resources comprehensively and biblically guide couples specifically on sexual intimacy. God, Sex, and Your Marriage challenges the common assumptions couples have about sexuality and presents the richer biblical narrative of sex as a metaphor of God’s covenant love. Dr. Juli Slattery applies that biblical framework to the practical challenges in sexual intimacy. Godly sexuality extends far beyond sexual purity and calls us to sexual integrity. God invites every couple to view their sexual relationship, including their greatest struggles, as an avenue to learn about the nature of His covenant love. It’s God desire to make us more like Himself and sex within marriage is often a powerful training ground for godly character. That desire gives purpose and context to addressing pornography, healing from past wounds, sexual incompatibility, pursuing pleasure together, and forgiveness.