February 5th is National Shower Together Day! To celebrate, I am sharing some tips on why this is an important routine to practice with your partner and the eleven benefits of taking a shower together. Not only is taking a shower a self-care and a daily hygiene routine but it is also considered a way to intimately engage with your partner. This could turn into a sexual encounter or just quality time alone where you are able to lend a helping hand with washing each other while having a good conversation.
This article will explore the benefits of showering together and how it can enhance your relationship and your own perception of self.
Why is there a National Shower Together Day
According to Kazek, 2016, the reason this holiday was established was to sell products to promote water conservation and water purity. New Wave Enviro Products had the “holiday” nationally recognized in 2015 to “eject a bit of fun” into “the coldest and loneliest season of the year.” It was supposed to bring humor into the winter season and educate people on the benefits of showering in fresh, filtered water.
Shower Together and Vulnerability
As mentioned in my previous article, I discussed how to reconnect during the holidays. One of the ways to accomplish this is to create moments of shared vulnerability. Taking a shower together is a time of vulnerability. Especially when there are insecurities surrounding body image this may be very uncomfortable for some. To ease the feeling of discomfort, make showering together a regular routine. Consistency will help build confidence in how you view your body with your partner. When you’re with your partner showering being fully present, emotionally and physically, during this time is extremely important. Finding different ways to spend with each other can help you understand how to be present and comfortable with vulnerability and strengthen the relationship.
If you are in the beginning stages of a relationship and still trying to understand each other’s body and even your own, then taking a shower can be a terrific tool to develop touch awareness. According to (Lapierre, 2007) our tactile receptors detect and respond to varying thresholds of pressure, friction, temperature, and vibration, becoming familiar with the specificity of responses in the skin’s receptors is the first step to developing awareness.
This can be done while showering together or taking a hot bath. Engaging in this activity has many ways to stimulate all of your senses.
Such as using smell, the scent of essential oils, scented bath salts, and soap or body wash also known as aroma therapy. Using touch, feel the water temperature, and the sensual touching through the use of your body and hands. Using sight, you are exposed to being able to appreciate the image in front of you with wet skin (most of the time you are touching skin in a dry state). When using hearing, talk to each other and describe what your experience is like showering together as you wash each other, engage in foreplay, or play relaxing music.
All these approaches can enhance the shower together experience and create a secure environment for intimacy and vulnerability. Below is a list of different ways in which this everyday hygiene routine can be a sexy, fun, seducing, and meaningful connection in your relationship.
11 Benefits of Showering Together
- It removes barriers and distractions that allow you to only focus on each other.
- It’s soothing and relaxing
- Reduces water consumption that will reduce the water bill.
- Great space to have intimate conversations.
- Another way to spend quality time.
- It helps with relieving stress.
- It can be a great way to initiate sex.
- Learn how to care for each other during and after getting out of the shower.
- Reach places your partner has difficulty reaching.
- Great space to give massages.
- Practice looking at each other to cultivate security and ease insecurity.
In conclusion, even though National Shower Together Day was formed as a marketing stunt it has inadvertently shined a light on intimacy and the implications it has on connecting on a deeper vulnerable level. Talk with your partner about how they feel about making this a regular routine, understand any reservations or hesitancy you or your partner may have, and identify workarounds or how to build up to showering together. Incorporating this into your relationship routine can be a definite game-changer.
References
Kazek, K. (2016, Febuary 5). 7 questions we have about National Shower with a Friend Day. Retrieved from Alabam Local News, Breaking News, and Sports and Weather: www.al.com
Lapierre, A. (2007). Introduction. A. Lapierre, Touch and Sexual Healing (pp. 1-36). Praeger Publishing.
