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Tammy Nelson, Ph.D.

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Can You Make The Honeymoon Last? Take Your Romantic Quotient And Find Out!

Posted: 03/21/2012 12:02 pm

When you first get married, your vision of a romantic life can get lost quickly in the day-to-day management of the business of a shared life. Shortly after the wedding, you may find that you both go back to work and to the routine of getting up in the morning, running out the door, and rushing home to dinner, then sitting curled up on the couch in front of the television; domesticity can set in faster than you can unpack your bags from the honeymoon.

How do you create some of that romance now that you are living together as husband and wife? Marriage doesn't have to mean that you give up romance. In fact, now that you're married and living together, it should mean that you make your intimate time together even more of a priority. The best way to transition from single and dating to a romantic married couple is to make your home the place where every evening feels like a mini-honeymoon.

Is your home set up for romance? Is your bedroom a honeymoon suite arranged only for lovemaking and intimate nights together? Take a look around your bedroom and see if your space is set up to create your ultimate love life. Even the best of romantic intentions can be stalemated by a bedroom setting that is not created for love but instead holds stuck energy and clutter.

Examine your bedroom for clues to your RQ: your Romantic Quotient. Your RQ is a rating that reflects three things: the romance, sexiness and relaxation of your bedroom environment. A higher RQ means your bedroom is more relaxed, sexier and more romantic than a lower RQ space. These questions will get you started on figuring out how to change your RQ today.

Take Your Romantic Quotient

Go over the next 21 questions and answer each True or False. On a scale from 1 to 20, you will find your RQ rating can range from "desperate" to "romantically excellent" depending on how your bedroom is set up for lovemaking and intimacy.

TRUE or FALSE:

  1. Our bedroom is for sleeping and lovemaking only
  2. Our bedroom has no TV or the TV is in a cabinet with doors that close
  3. Our bedroom has no desk
  4. Our bedroom has no computer
  5. Our bedroom has soft lighting
  6. Our bedroom has candles
  7. Our bedroom has beautiful colors on the wall
  8. Our bedroom has soft sheets above 1,000 thread count
  9. Our bedroom has extra-soft pillows -- more than 2
  10. Our bedroom has colorful throw pillows on the bed
  11. Our bedroom has a feeling of calm
  12. Our bedroom feels sexy
  13. Our bedroom has massage oil on hand
  14. Our bedroom has sex toys in a convenient place
  15. Our bedroom has lubrication handy
  16. Our bedroom has erotic reading material handy or sexy movies
  17. Our bedroom feels safe and relaxed
  18. Our bedroom has music
  19. Our bedroom feels romantic
  20. Give one extra point for anything special or erotic in your bedroom
  21. Take two points off if your bedroom is cluttered or crowded
SCORING:

15 to 20+ points: Your RQ is EXCELLENT

This means that your bedroom is primarily for lovemaking and sleep. You have created an environment that is primarily romantic, relaxing and sexy. You are working hard to make this a sacred space for your erotic relationship.

RQ to do: Create a sex date once a week. Make it the same time every week. Set up your space to create a romantic environment for lovemaking. Add things that you think your partner will find romantic every week. Surprise them with a new candle or scent, or flowers and a new CD.

10 to 14 points: Your RQ is VERY GOOD

This means that your bedroom is a good space for lovemaking and sleep, but you could use some focus on bringing it to a more romantic and erotic space for the two of you to focus on love. Make some changes now and your romance will only get better.

RQ to do: Can you change the lighting in your room by softening your lampshades and making them a more natural color? Can you clear out the corners of your room and under your bed, letting the energy of the room flow freely? Can you find a cabinet to store your television and hide all of the cords and plugs in the room?

5 to 9 points: Your RQ NEEDS WORK

Your bedroom is out of romantic balance. You have some things in place for eroticism and have some romantic elements here, but your sexiness and relaxation elements are missing. Focus on the vision of your romantic space and together create the space you want by making small changes or even bigger changes if you need them.

RQ to do: Paint the walls a warm color, bringing heat into your space. Hang photos or paintings of pairs or couples, adding the element of partners to your bedroom. Bring in red candles and orange pillows, and blankets with soft textures. Candles with scents can add an element of sensuality to your space as well. Clear out any children's toys or work mess that you have in your bedroom.

0 to 4 points: Your RQ is DESPERATE

It's time to make some much-needed changes to your space. Your romantic relationship may depend on you paying attention to what you change now in your bedroom. It is time to put the focus on your relationship. Make some changes immediately and create your sacred space together. This will help you move toward a romantic future and help you focus on your erotic lives together.

RQ to do: Use a designer who can help you plan small changes in colors, decorations and movement of your furniture that don't have to cost a lot but can change the feel of the room dramatically. You may not have time to do this yourself, and having an expert come in and change things around may help you to change the things you need in the drastic ways that you need it. And think of how fun it will be when you are standing in your new space with your eyes closed, and then, voila, you open them to your new romantic bedroom, made for love.

Notice what feels romantic to you. Rose petals for the bed sheets, soft music in the background? Don't wait for your partner to become sexy or romantic. Create the environment that you want today. Your Romantic Quotient will determine how romantic your relationship can become.

With a few small changes in your RQ, you can improve your love life today and make your honeymoon last throughout the lifetime of your marriage. Contact me for more information on how you can have a personalized RQ assessment (or intervention!) in your home. For an RQ design consultant, contact me directly at tammy@drtammynelson.com or go to www.drtammynelson.com today.

Dr. Tammy Nelson is a sex and relationship expert and the author of the upcoming "The New Monogamy" as well as "Getting the Sex You Want" and "What's Eating You?" She can be found at www.drtammynelson.com

 
When you first get married, your vision of a romantic life can get lost quickly in the day-to-day management of the business of a shared life. Shortly after the wedding, you may find that you both go ...
When you first get married, your vision of a romantic life can get lost quickly in the day-to-day management of the business of a shared life. Shortly after the wedding, you may find that you both go ...
 
 
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Oregonian76
Just a guy from the PacNW
01:18 PM on 03/26/2012
I'm assuming that "you get 1 point for TRUE and 0 points for FALSE", since the article didn't indicate it, but the answer key appears to suggest as much.

I got 11 points. All 3 questions in that sections specifically don't apply to me though - there's already soft light in the bedroom, there's no clutter, and there's no TV. Thanks for a whole lot of nothing in the suggestion department... (not that I was looking for any, but it would have been nice to get even one)...
01:30 PM on 03/24/2012
I apprecitate the word domesticity . thats more natural. to me romanticism is lot of pseudo-science and a bother. it might even kill sex if sex becomes the goal . sex is goal for creation ( a devine plan)
\not for fun and games we humans want. if you want the later good go ahead do decorate or do donot decorate . just be in season . i mean seasons of the mind
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Greg Gorelick
Logic: your friend
07:42 PM on 03/23/2012
" Hang photos or paintings of pairs or couples, adding the element of partners to your bedroom. Bring in red candles and orange pillows, and blankets with soft textures.". LOL WHAT?? Who wrote this article? The decorator for a Turkish bathhouse?
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02:33 PM on 03/23/2012
There is no perfect plan that works for everyone and quite frankly, remember when you didn't need decorator pillows and lovely colors surrounding you in order to have sex? You had it anywhere, even in the back seat of a car! An old car! DIdn't matter. This article is rather lame.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Ayesha Khan
02:30 PM on 03/23/2012
This is all rubbish and there was no need to write an article on this subject, its the people who destroy their own life. Are these people coming from some different planet that they don't know how your priorities and responsibilities change when you start to live under a same roof. And if they think that they finished their sexual life after getting married then why the hell did they get married? If they had enough time for romance, emotions, feeling and every thing that makes a perfect relationship then Marriage was a curse on them. It is the same people who were sharing precious feelings before, and if they want they can make it even better when they start to live together but the problem is that they don't want to and keeps blaming the circumstances. The fault lies in them not in the change of the place--- Let them rot!!!!!!!!!!
01:17 PM on 03/23/2012
I don't think a couple of colorful pillows is going to get me in the mood after a full day. Trust me, it IS because our lives are too hectic and we don't get enough sleep.
12:55 PM on 03/23/2012
Reason: lack of any partners in the first place. Even homeless women turn me down!
12:48 PM on 03/23/2012
My wife practises birth control--She places an aspirin inside her left knee and
holds it in place with her right knee .
Smart way not to get knocked up [cheap,too ].
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
fhmjam
12:36 PM on 03/23/2012
I just say "Do you want to fool around or should I go over to your sister's, like last time?". Works every time. (Just kidding; no hate replys)
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12:27 PM on 03/23/2012
If you get tired of one hole, you always have another?
11:53 AM on 03/23/2012
Some humans are becoming more like Pandas, in regrads to of having sex or mating problems.
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Brace4impactz
Olympic Gold Medalist in Hugging
11:36 AM on 03/23/2012
Weed and a little wine...works everytime...actually too good sometimes.
HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Greg Gorelick
Logic: your friend
07:43 PM on 03/23/2012
bingo
11:08 AM on 03/23/2012
..my reason for not having sex is my wife.... she won't let me date...!
10:40 AM on 03/23/2012
Oh I see it's not the people in the room, it's the ROOM!! This kind of micro management is another in a series on "Why you are not having any sex" that ranks right up there in the women's fantasy department. I really don't mean to be sexiist, but all of these articles seem to be written by women, most of whom are Dr.'s. I am sure they are trying to be helpful, and I do appreciate the sincere spirit in which they are presented. But people who want to have sex, (operative word WANT) have sex. People with hang ups, inhibitions, people who manufacture reasons not to, DON'T have sex. Romanic lighting, erotic items, atc. just aren't going to change anything.
02:00 PM on 03/23/2012
You are absolutely right. The desire to have sex in women is affected by any suppressed anger they have toward their partner or many times, themselves. If you can breath you don't look at your partner and criticize their lungs, you go to your doctor and find out what's wrong with YOUR lungs. If the people who say they want a monogamous relationship want that taken seriously, they should take their part in it seriously. No one has to react with infidelity but really, depression and anger are the other choices. Men can deal with any behavior toward the spouse that is critical, mean, aggressive, etc. Each person take care of their side of the street and when it is clean, have sex on it.
09:54 AM on 03/23/2012
Actually, you only need to ask one question. Do I really want to have sex with that person?