September 26, 2008

"Is There Anything I Can Do To Help?"

Often times as a husband I am just not very observant when it comes to helping my wife when she needs it. I'll see her running around the house frantically trying to get ready on time, and I am just at a loss as to what I can do to help. Other times she'll be in the kitchen cooking and I'll be watching T.V. or sitting at the computer and think, "I wonder if she's upset that I'm not helping right now?"

I have found one question to greatly help these times of confusion: "Is there anything I can do to help?" It's a simple question, but we, as men, often only think to ask it when things have gone too far and she's already upset (and then the question makes the problem worse).

Most of the time my wife will answer, "Yeah, could you help make the sandwiches?" or "Would you mind vacuuming the living room?" Other times, though, she'll say, "Um, no I think I'm fine right now, thanks."

Asking this question will put you both at ease. You'll feel better because you won't feel guilty about doing nothing when you know that she probably wants your help. She'll feel better because she knows that you care, even if there's nothing she needs you from you at that moment.

Again, we often ask this question when it's too late. We'll notice how irritated she is with us, and we'll say, "What do you want me to do?" and her response is something along the lines of, "I shouldn't have to tell you!" If you ask this question at the beginning, she'll appreciate you heart. Ask too late (and with the wrong tone), she'll probably be offended.

And wives, be kind to us. We tend to be a little slow in this area of recognizing what needs to be done. This makes me think of a wife who told me how her husband came home while she was feeding their newborn and while their two-year-old was climbing all over her. She was desperate for some help, but her husband was temporarily oblivious to the situation, he was in a different "box" (more to come on that idea). She said, "I'm amazed at how he could see me struggling and not think to do anything about it." Thankfully this wife had a good understanding of the differences between men and women, so it wasn't a point of tension, but a chance to laugh at the differences between the sexes.

So remember, ask if there's anything you can do to help. Let her know that you're aware that she's working and you're willing to. Whether she needs the help or not, you'll both feel better.

New to iamhusband.com? Check out our introduction here, our most popular post here, and our recent series on masturbation in the marriage relationship here. And if you're interested in keeping up with iamhusband, make sure to subscribe to our feed using the buttons in the right-hand column.

September 7, 2008

Masturbation In Marriage: Part V

This is part five in a series on masturbation in marriage. This topic has created some interesting discussion in the comments, and I thank everyone for participating. If you haven’t already, make sure to check out the rest of the series, which starts here.

Whether or not you see masturbation in marriage as okay or not, the fact is that many husbands are doing it, and many are doing it pretty often (as is becoming clear here on this site in the poll in the sidebar). I don’t think any of us would disagree that sex on your own is not the way it’s supposed to work, but because we’ve been doing it for most of our lives it’s not an easy habit to break. As we discussed in part three, when we ejaculate we train our brains to associate those amazing feelings with what we are seeing and experiencing at the moment, and because we got stuck on that before marriage, our wives don’t become a replacement for the self service method, they just become an addition.

Today I want to talk about some practical ways to help retrain our brains to desire and receive sexual satisfaction strictly from our wives. These are not cure-all methods, but these are exercises that greatly helped me as I began to transition from “Me Sex” to “We Sex,” as Dr. Doug Weiss puts it.



Stop Doing It

This may seem obvious, but the first step in conquering these misguided desires is to quit satisfying those desires. You cannot retrain your brain for your wife if you keep reinforcing the old habit with yourself.



Talk To Her About It

This may be the last thing you want to do, but this is probably the most important. She needs to know all of you – she deserves to know all of you. As I mentioned in part four, talking with my wife allowed her to know the struggles I was having and the desires to masturbate that I was experiencing. And because my wife was not okay with me pleasing myself, she chose to be more aware and giving with her time when it came to fulfilling my sexual desires.


Make Love With Your Eyes Open

A quickie after the lights go out and before you both fall asleep is fine occasionally, but retraining your brain to receive pleasure from her is going to take a little more effort than that.

To take advantage of the chemical overload happening in your brain during orgasm, you have got to let your eyes lock onto your wife. Remember that your eyes tell your brain where the sexual gratification is coming from. In order to retrain your brain to desire your wife sexually – and not the naked models in a magazine – you must look at her before and during ejaculation. Don’t close your eyes or bury your head in the pillow – look at her. Alternate between locking eyes with her and gazing at her body during climax.

Note: This is the best way to make your heavier-set wife look like the hottest woman you’ve ever seen. When you are receiving sexual gratification while looking at her, you teach your brain to associate great sex with your wife, no matter how she compares to an airbrushed super model. This principle is also very closely tied to the next.


Starve Your Eyes From Outside Sexual Influences

No matter how “natural” you may think it is to “admire” other women, this bad habit has a very negative affect on your sex life. Your body was designed to be visually stimulated, but that does not mean you are designed to stimulate yourself over every visual image. The strong desire you have to look at women is meant to make your marriage awesome because you take all those desires and pour them into one woman. If you keep your eyes off the Victoria’s Secret magazine, the Swimsuit Edition, underwear commercials, etc., and you keep your eyes on your wife during lovemaking, you will train your brain to want gratification through sex with your wife, and nothing more.

Also, it is this point that can seriously help you in your quest to stop masturbating. Our bodies naturally desire sexual release every 2-3 days, but if we are stimulating our minds with sexual images all the time, the desire for release is going to be much more often. The more we see, the more we want. If you are trying to get your masturbation habit under control, stop allowing your eyes to take in extra-marital sexual images.

Read more about the concept of starving your eyes for your wife here.


In Conclusion

These are the main methods that have helped me curb my masturbation appetite. It’s not easy to break this habit, but it is possible. Yes, there are still times when I occasionally crave the convenience of masturbation, but the constant desire that I once had is gone. I no longer instantly crave to please myself as soon as the house is empty because I have taught my brain to crave my wife. And when I do feel overwhelmed by my sexual desires, I feel at peace knowing I can go to my wife and tell her that I would love to make love with her that night. By being honest with my wife and choosing her over myself, I have given her all of me. And she deserves all of me.

I really enjoyed this last week, and I hope it helps husbands out there who are struggling with this. We don’t talk about this enough, but we need to. I would appreciate any feedback in the comments below, and I also want to remind you to take the one-question survey at the top-right side of this page.


Make sure you check out the
previous articles in the series on masturbation in marriage:

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV



September 4, 2008

Masturbation In Marriage: Part IV

This is Part IV in a series about masturbation in the marriage relationship. Make sure to check out Part I, Part II, and Part III.

One of the habits I got into when I was younger was masturbating when the house was empty. If the whole family took off somewhere, that would be my chance. This pattern developed even further when I got older and moved out of the house and had roommates. No People = Help Yourself. I also used masturbation as a simple stress-reliever during hard times; it was a break I could take that I new would help relieve stress and any sexual tension that may have been contributing to that stress.

In part three of this series I wrote that “what we look at before and during ejaculation has a very profound affect on our sexual conditioning...many of us come into marriage with our minds already locked on something else (porn, fantasies, situational conditions).” In my case, my sexual fulfillment had been defined by my situational conditions — at home and alone or stressed out by things in life. (Yes, in a small way, I had trained my brain to get turned on by stress.)

After I got married, I quickly found out that just because our sex life was great and we were having sex frequently did not mean that I suddenly stopped desiring to masturbate when the house happened to be empty. I spent years training my brain to sexually desire that environment, and it did not want to change. I would also get pretty frustrated during stressful times knowing that before marriage, I could just slip into the bathroom and relieve a little bit of that stress. After marriage, however, I forced myself to press through and simply hope that she would be in the mood that night. Though she was always willing, I knew she would not be up for it as often as I wanted it, and I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to talk to her, but didn’t know what to say.



What Does Your Wife Know About Your ‘Personal Time’?


I am of the strong belief that there should be no areas off limits between a husband and wife. I believe that the moment I said, “I do” my body became her body, and that she was allowed to say what I did and didn’t do with it.

Doug Weiss compares the idea of “equal ownership” of each other’s sexuality with the illustration of a couple sitting in a restaurant when the husbands announces to his wife, “I’ve decided that 70% of our savings belongs just to me.” The idea is ridiculous; both were saving for the trip to Europe – and both want the trip to Europe – but the husband feels he’s entitled to take a part of what they share for himself and his personal desires.

Imagine that same couple in the same restaurant, Weiss describes, and the husband announces, “From now on, Honey, 30% of my sexual expression belongs just to me.” What does she say? Does she have to convince herself that it’s “normal” to only receive 70% of her husband’s sexuality? If we’re honest with ourselves, insisting on our “right” to masturbate in marriage is saying just that.

Are you honest with yourself and with your wife about your sexuality? Many men think that their wives are fine with it, but they don’t have a single conversation to back up that theory. Doug Weiss writes in his book, Sex, Men, and God:

“You may say that she has never asked you about your masturbation habits; thus you have never lied. Unfortunately, only men think this way. If you never told her, why didn’t you? If you’re really okay with what you’re doing in private, why not tell her? If both of you sit down and agree that it’s okay for you to have a sexual behavior without her, then she should be fine with knowing the truth...

“If this sounds too strange for you to do, then you might have made a sexual decision for yourself that is not mutually agreed upon and is secretive. This can lead to marital and personal problems down the road. If you can’t be honest with your wife about your total sexual expression, then you probably need to evaluate the reason for the ongoing lies to your wife.”


When I finally did get the guts to sit down with my wife and explain to her my sexual frustrations with my desire to masturbate, she expressed that she was still very uncomfortable with me engaging in it, as it made her feel less desirable and more like I wasn’t satisfied with her. Though this wasn’t the answer I was looking for, we did come to a solution: She chose to be overly-aware of my natural need for release every 48-72 hours, and she also gave me the freedom to be very up-front with her about my “unexpected” needs. Now, if there’s ever one of those afternoons where I just want to relieve some tension, I go to her and say, “I really need you tonight.” I’m more connected to her because of this agreement.

I don’t think that connected, “Type B” masturbation is a bad thing in marriage (especially during travel, sickness, etc.), but I do think it is a bad thing if your wife isn’t comfortable with it.

And I believe that she has the right to choose whether or not she’s comfortable with it.


On Saturday we’ll conclude this series with a discussion of practical ways to re-teach your brain what and who to desire so that we can truly love sex with our wives more than we do sex with ourselves.

Make sure you check out the previous articles in the series on masturbation in marriage:


Part I
Part II
Part III


September 2, 2008

Masturbation In Marriage: Part III

This is Part 3 in our discussion on masturbation in the marriage relationship. Don’t forget to check out Part I and Part II.

When a man ejaculates, he receives the greatest natural chemical high that he can possibly experience. Endorphins and enkephalins are pumped through your system straight to the preopticneuron part of the brain, and nothing in the world compares to this experience.

It should go without saying, then, that what we look at before and during ejaculation has a very profound affect on our sexual conditioning. When we release, our brains associate that particular object with sexual gratification. This has amazing implications when you experience sexual release in the embrace of your wife, however many of us come into marriage with our minds already locked onto something else (porn, fantasies, situational conditions) and so the transition to married life is hindered by the things we connected to before our wives.

I mentioned in Part II of this series that the most unhealthy type of masturbation is what author Doug Weiss classifies as “Type C” masturbation; that is, those who masturbate completely disconnected from reality. This an object-focused experience, men in this category objectivify anyone in their fantasies to do anything (picturing the nude model giving oral sex, for example). Many people today claim masturbation within marriage should not only be tolerated, but embraced; that a wife stumbling in on her husband masturbating with a Playboy magazine is a completely normal thing. When it comes to this disconnected, Type C masturbator, however, I could not disagree more.

Dr. Doug Weiss, author of the book Sex, Men, and God has this to say about the disconnected masturbator: “...if a man engages in an object-type of self sex and develops a neuropathic chemical reinforcement in his brain, it will affirm to him that object-type sex is chemically awesome. The desire to repeat this disconnected sex increases with the frequently in which he participates in this behavior.” It’s no wonder that since many of us have been masturbating to these images for 10-15 years before marriage why breaking the habit seems so impossible — you’ve already told your brain what good sex is. No matter how great sex with your wife is, you brain still craves for what it has already defined as “great sex.”

It is because of this fact that I say Type C masturbation can be the most threatening to a marriage. It is because of this fact that husbands sometimes begin to prefer sex with themselves than sex with their wives. I have even heard of men who can’t make love with their wives without a porn magazine lying open on the bed because they can’t get turned on without it!

Weiss continues: “Not only is this man disconnected during his sexual acts with himself, he is also reinforcing some pretty powerful yet unrealistic belief systems about sex.” Some of those beliefs he lists are: “Sex is only with beautiful women,” “Sex is all about me and what I want,” “There is no good reason not to have sex,” and “Women want to be degraded and talk dirty.” And because we often develop these attitudes before marriage, we are under the false assumption that we deserve sexual gratification anywhere, at any time, and if our wives can’t help us out, we’ll do it ourselves.

These expectations are not only completely false, but they set your wife on a pedestal that she is not able to stand on. Men often complain that their wives never want to try any new things sexually, but we don’t stop to think that many of the ideas we have come from places we should have never been. When we ejaculate watching porn with two girls going at it, that’s what our brain tells us is good sex. When we ejaculate to that Penthouse we have hiding in the bedroom, our brains tell us that looking at an airbrushed woman is what defines good sex. When we masturbate with images of a celebrity giving us oral sex on a beach in Tahiti, there’s no wonder sex with our heavy-set wives in our tiny one bedroom apartment just doesn’t stack up.

Type C, disconnected masturbation should not take place in the marriage relationship because it attaches your brain to situations that are not real, and in so doing, weakens the power of sex between a husband and wife. Masturbation to pornography and fantasies dilutes the power of sex between a husband and a wife, and if that’s baggage you brought with you into marriage, you have cheated your wife from receiving all of you. And you are cheating yourself from receiving all of her.

Remember, what you look at (or fantasize over) during ejaculation is what your brain “glues” you to for sexual fulfillment. That information is power, so use it wisely. When you starve your eyes for sexual fulfilment with your wife, you will lean to seek fulfilment from her, and only from her.

Hope you guys are enjoying this. If you do happen to think these articles are worthy, I would appreciate a few StumbleUpon recommendations. I really feel like this is such an important topic for husbands to discuss.

On Thursday we’ll talk about the Type B masturbator, and about how involved our wives should be in this area of our lives. Hope to see you then!

Related Reading: Masturbation In Marriage Part I and Part II