Do you find your relationship still passionate after years of being together?

Do you find your relationship still passionate after years of being together?

It comes and goes in waves for us. Over the pandemic our sex life kind of plummeted, although our affection didn't. In many ways, we became more affectionate spending more time at home together. There was a lot more cuddling and doing things like watching movies together.
I think that's mostly my fault that our sex life plummeted over the pandemic. One thing I discovered over the pandemic is just how much of an extrovert I really am. When I'm a homebody for too long, all my energy and excitement plummet. That includes my sex drive. I had "masturbation drive" but "sex drive" is different to me; masturbation is just like a quick release; I can do it when I'm depressed and about to pass out. Sex requires energy and enthusiasm for me.
Just in recent months though, Japanese have really started to relax the social distancing and over half have stopped wearing masks. It's like, "Wow, I forgot how it's like to see the face of a stranger!" And I'm finding my energy and enthusiasm gradually returning along with the sex drive. Just being outside and seeing people's faces seems to be helping me to slowly recover the energy and enthusiasm I once had, although I had a setback last month with a debilitating injury. Yet I just recently recovered so hopefully I can start getting back on track.
So sex life is in a state of flux and a work in progress at the moment but one thing that never dwindles with my wife and me is affection and openness.
One thing I find in my peculiar case is that I'm always in the mood when my wife and I get dressed and go out. Then when we return, I'm ready to undress her and go. I think it's because it simulates what we did when we were just dating and that's just how I learned in my brain to associate romance and sex together is romantic evening, then come home together with difficulty keeping our hands off each other. It's the ritual that always works for me. So I'm looking forward to doing that more with my wife in the near future.
Before pandemic though, typically at least sex once a week. Our ritual was to dress up and head out on a Friday night, come home and be very passionate. Then post-pandemic, it's a bit embarrassing but I think we even went one time for 6 months while being sexless. We weren't unhappy as far as I could tell and still cuddly and affectionate, but it's like sex didn't even cross our minds.
We're both romantic vanilla types and not the type to just want to hump each other bumming out in the house in our PJs. We kind of need to dress up and set the stage. Also I quit drinking alcohol completely towards the end of last year and I need to learn how to adjust now, since my wife and I often tended to have at least a few glasses of wine before we returned (typically we went out to a bar, not a restaurant).
So apologies for the long-windedness, but I'm still trying to figure out how to adjust now. I think I just need to find the right angle and a new set of routines and we'll be back on track.
my longest relationship was around five years... and it was still blazing like California's latest summers...
We’ve been together almost 2 1/2 years and we’re still really passionate about each other
Opinion
2Opinion
Around 19 years and it is just like it was the first year
never been any less passionate
Yes🩷
Yes.
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