Ryan & Selena Frederick are the founders of FierceMarriage.com and two of my new favorite people. Ryan was kind enough to contribute to my recent eBook, Marriage Hacks. His practical suggestion (below) is one me and Analee have adopted and would be the first to say, it works! Hope it helps you as much as it did us.

Enter Ryan.

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?”

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!

Now, my wife 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.

My wife is my best friend. When you’re “kissably-close” to your spouse, smelling their breath, feeling their skin, you remember who they are as a person. It’s 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 & 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 until you try it a few times.

I’m confident it will have a positive impact on your relationship with your spouse.

This article was originally published on FierceMarriage.com. Also, to download Marriage Hacks: 25 Practical Ways to Make Love Last for free, visit here.

Also, I’d love to hear your “marriage hack.” What’s something practical that has worked in keeping the connection alive between you and your spouse?