By Ryan Frederick
A few weeks back, I met a gentleman at church named Tim. Tim and his wife had been married many years (I can’t remember exactly, but it was at least 30) and weathered many trials through their marriage (cancer included).
Naturally I asked him what the secret was—as I usually do when I meet someone with an epic marriage. How have they stuck together through everything? – I asked him this knowing that we shared our faith and reliance on Jesus Christ.
He simply replied, The 15 second kiss.
Intrigued, I asked, What do you mean? though I suppose I could have figured it out.
He responded, Every day, my wife and I always give each other a 15 second kiss. It’s long enough that you can’t fake it, it forces us to connect.
I had never heard of purposefully timing a kiss. It was a novel idea I was anxious to try!
Our 15 Second Kiss Trial
Selena and I kiss plenty, but we realized that we don’t often kiss for more than a few seconds. I’m not exactly sure why, but I do know it wasn’t like that when we were dating. We made out way too much and for too long when we were dating
After my sales pitch, Selena and I agreed to try a few days with the 15 second kiss rule. Here’s what we learned (or were reminded of)
1) 15 seconds isn’t that long except when you’re kissing. We burn 15 seconds all the time without thinking about it. We sit on our phones, daydream, work around the house, you name it—15 seconds is a short amount of time for most tasks. However, when you’re kissing and consciously timing it, 15 seconds seems to be longer. And that’s a good thing!
At first we were both aware of the time because of the novelty of the exercise. It didn’t take long for us to simply get lost in the kiss. If other couples are like us, we get too busy to get lost doing anything. The 15 second kiss was a refreshing reminder that we can truly get lost in our affection for one another.
2) It’s nearly impossible to kiss for an extended period of time and not feel closer. Kissing is intimate. We found that as we got lost in the kiss, we were getting lost together. And when we were lost together we truly found each other. (Oh that sounds poetic .)
Kissing makes us feel closer; and since we always want to feel closer it makes sense to make purposed kissing a daily part of our lives.
3) It refocused us on who we are to each other. When youre kissably-close to your spouse, smelling their breath, feeling their skin, you remember who they are as a person. Its easy to begin seeing your spouse as a roommate or casual partner, but kissing reminds us of the distinctly human qualities (good and bad) that we fell in love with in the first place.
Kissing forces us to drown out distractions around us. We had to consciously tune everything else out and focus solely on each other something we can all agree we need more of.
4) Kissing is a gateway drug. Kissing contributes to overall friskiness. We are both ahem more intimacy minded after the 15 second kisses than we are before.
5) Kissing refreshes and energizes us. Perhaps it’s just the friskiness, or maybe something else, but kissing is like an adrenaline shot. We both feel excited and energized after a 15 second kiss.
Try for yourselves!
Whether you and your spouse are constant kissers or even if you’ve forgotten what a french kiss is, I highly recommend giving this exercise a shot. Feel free to go longer than 15 seconds, but certainly don’t go shorter—at least not after you try it a few times.
I’m confident it will have a positive impact on your relationship with your spouse. Give it a try and report back with your findings.
Ryan Frederick is the co-founder of Fierce Marriage.
Reposed with permission. This article originally appeared here.
