Micro-dates can deepen your connection with your partner

If you’re seeking more intimacy in your relationship, but are short on time, micro-dating could help.

Relationship experts at the Gottman Institute, an organization that studies relationship dynamics, offer a solution to help maximize time while creating a deeper, more intimate connection with your partner: micro-dating.

“If you know you have limited time together, you’re more likely to avoid distractions. The couple can focus on each other and dedicate their full attention to that short moment together,” Kiaundra Jackson, a licensed marriage and family therapist, told ESSENCE.

A micro-date is spending up to 10 minutes of uninterrupted time with your partner that doesn’t involve cell phones, children, multitasking or anything else that can cause a distraction.

Here are a few micro-date ideas:

“You can’t really have a healthy and stable relationship without intimacy, and we need shared experiences in order for us to feel like it is a relationship [at all],” therapist Joy Berkheimer told Well and Good.

Experts recommend starting small. Try a quick coffee break and discuss something that interests you and your partner.

“This is time for building Love Maps, sharing fondness and admiration, and turning toward one another,” said the Gottman Institute’s Jennifer Pestsky.

Micro-dates have been proven to boost mental, emotional and intimate connections with your partner by re-igniting the dating stage of your relationship. No matter how many days, weeks, months or years you’ve been together, it’s never a bad idea to set aside time for a little one-on-one appreciation.