{"id":2452026,"date":"2019-12-10T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2019-12-10T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=317365"},"modified":"2019-12-10T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2019-12-10T07:00:00","slug":"sometimes-risking-rejection-can-be-worth-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/sometimes-risking-rejection-can-be-worth-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes risking rejection can be worth it"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-image p402_hide\">\n<div class=\"caption-container\"> <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"620\" height=\"463\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/shesaidhesaid-atd-102417.jpg\" class=\"attachment-large size-large wp-post-image\" alt srcset=\"https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/shesaidhesaid-atd-102417.jpg 620w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/shesaidhesaid-atd-102417-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/cdn.aspentimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/12\/shesaidhesaid-atd-102417-325x243.jpg 325w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\"><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Dear Lori and Jeff,<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">My wife and I still have great sex but it\u2019s way less frequent than it was when first met a few years ago. My wife says she wants me to initiate more but I really don\u2019t like feeling rejected when she isn\u2019t in the mood. I try to look for signs from her that show she\u2019s interested as it gets later in the evening. I listen for subtle things she might say, like if she\u2019s tired or stressed. I check out what she\u2019s wearing to bed and whether or not she\u2019s put in her retainer. I know this isn\u2019t a foolproof strategy but I\u2019m at a loss of what else to do.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND Letter Title\">Signed,<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND Letter Name\">Looking For Signs<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Dear LFS,<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Lori and Jeff: We often see couples struggling to get on the same intimacy wavelength. Your experience of a slowed-down sex life is common for most relationships, and not necessarily indicative of a problem in and of itself. However, if one or both partners is unsatisfied, it\u2019s worth putting in the effort to reignite the spark. Often it\u2019s men who are looking for more, and for a good reason. Many men experience sex as a way to feel emotionally connected, and a dry spell can evoke feelings of vulnerability, insecurity and detachment. But how you make a move (or avoid doing so) can have a huge impact on whether you\u2019re getting any.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Jeff: Stop thinking about sex like a baseball game where you\u2019re looking to the third base coach to wave you home. Sometimes you have to make that decision on your own and risk the possibility of being tagged out. The bottom line is that you have to make it easy and fun for both of you to talk about sex so you\u2019re not resorting to cryptic measures to avoid feeling rejected. If you\u2019re not comfortable talking about it, it\u2019s up to you to figure out why \u2014 don\u2019t leave it up to her to break the ice.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText\">If your wife isn\u2019t in the mood, it likely has nothing to do with you. Learn to separate whether she wants to have sex with you on any given day, from whether she loves you, accepts you and approves of you. This will help lessen the fear of rejection and getting relegated to the bench.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Lori: Waiting for her to initiate doesn\u2019t ever give her the experience of feeling desired, and that\u2019s a downer for anyone. Furthermore, being passive, subtle, unsure or insecure in the bedroom is not going to ignite the flames of passion. For many women, it\u2019s a huge turn-off. I was recently listening to Esther Perel\u2019s podcast in which she said women often need to feel that their partners are strong and self-assured in order to be secure in really opening up sexually. We want to know that if we unleash our most uninhibited selves, you can at least handle it, and at best, join us in it. That doesn\u2019t mean you need to swagger in like an adult film star, but she\u2019s definitely going to be more interested if you bring the energy of a confident man rather than trepidation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText BoldIntro\">Lori and Jeff: Couples should see sex as a dynamic of the relationship rather than a series of events. It\u2019s an overall atmosphere of sensuality and titillating tension that you need to play with throughout the day, not just at 10 p.m. She\u2019s still not going to be into it 100% of the time. No one is. But occasionally not wanting sex is a non-issue when your communication about it is solid and your connection is simmering.<\/p>\n<p class=\"STND-STND BodyText Tagline\">Lori and Jeff are married, licensed psychotherapists and couple-to-couple coaches at Aspen Relationship Institute. Submit your relationship questions to <a href=\"mailto:info@AspenRelationshipCoaching.com\">info@AspenRelationshipCoaching.com<\/a> and your query may be selected for a future column.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/opinion\/sometimes-risking-rejection-can-be-worth-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dear Lori and Jeff, My wife and I still have great sex but it\u2019s way less frequent than it was when first met a few years ago. My wife says she wants me to initiate more but I really don\u2019t like feeling rejected when she isn\u2019t in the mood. I try to look for signs [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2452026","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-19 03:12:41","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley&#039;s Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452026","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2452026"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2452026\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2452026"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2452026"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2452026"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}