81: Prioritizing Emotional Check-Ins: How Scheduling Intimacy Time Enhances Your Sex Life

In episode, "81: Prioritizing Emotional Check-Ins: How Scheduling Intimacy Time Enhances Your Sex Life," of "All Things Love and Intimacy" with Katie Ziskind, we explore the often-overlooked connection between emotional intimacy and sexual desire. If you are in a sexless marriage, there is a need to rend to your marriage's emotional garden. For many couples, a healthy sex life begins with feeling emotionally safe, connected, and understood. We don't see how important emotional intimacy is in pornography as well. So, many couples never actually know why they are feeling disconnected or how to close the emotional intimacy gap, to then improve their sexual bond. When you just feel disconnected, alone, upset, hurt, ignored, cast aside, criticized, and anxious emotionally, sessions with Katie Ziskind help you build meaningful connection, intimacy, and closeness, and have a safe place to talk about your sexual needs, desires, boundaries, and expectations. Scheduling daily time to talk about emotions reassures both partners that their feelings matter and creates an environment where vulnerability can thrive. Emotional intimacy is the bedrock of a healthy, thriving relationship, and it plays a critical role in fostering a fulfilling sex life. Without emotional connection, partners may feel distant, misunderstood, or even neglected, which can create barriers to physical intimacy. When emotional needs go unmet, it’s difficult to fully relax, trust, and be vulnerable with each other in a way that builds lasting sexual desire. Emotional intimacy, then, isn’t just a “nice-to-have” in relationships—it’s a necessity for building long-term passion and connection. Incorporating regular emotional check-ins strengthens this intimacy by creating a consistent space for open dialogue. These check-ins allow partners to express feelings, thoughts, and concerns, reinforcing that their emotional well-being is a priority in the relationship. When both partners feel heard and validated, it cultivates a sense of emotional safety. We'll discuss how setting aside time to regularly connect, even if just 30 to 60 minutes each day, strengthens the emotional bond, making way for deeper sexual intimacy. This routine helps foster trust and emotional safety—essential ingredients for sparking sexual desire. But it's not just about making time; it's about learning to engage with the full range of human emotions. We’ll dive into how couples can talk about joy, fear, anger, and sadness without becoming defensive, critical, stonewalling, or walking out. By staying open and non-judgmental, partners can cultivate a space of empathy and understanding, paving the way for a deeper emotional connection. And with that emotional safety comes the freedom to explore and enjoy a more fulfilling and connected sex life. Join us for an in-depth conversation on the power of emotional check-ins, the art of empathetic listening, and practical ways to break down barriers to emotional and sexual intimacy. Katie Ziskind is a sex positive, LGBTQIA+, queer affirming relationship coach, certified sex therapy informed professional, and Gottman level two trained marriage specialist. The “All Things Love and Intimacy” podcast is intended to help you feel more comfortable talking about emotional expression, gain emotional intimacy skills, and feel confident talking about your sexual needs, sexual expectations, erotic desires, and fantasies with your partner or partners. Katie Ziskind loves helping couples break cycles of emotional distance and sexual avoidance, and develop emotional connection and rebuild sexual desire and sexual intimacy. She would love to help you in sex positive, relationship coaching and marriage counseling sessions.  You can build an emotionally secure, loving, playful, and passionate marriage bond and healthy sex life by working with her at www.WisdomWithinCt.com. This episode is no replacement for seeking professional help.