Why Mindfulness is Vital to Sexual Health

I’m finally going to talk about sexual health. I’ve been avoiding the subject for over a year, so it’s about time. How can you talk about survivorship without talking about sex? More pointedly, how can you talk about celebrating an inspired survivorship without talking about sex? You can’t, so here goes.

“What does mindfulness have to do with sexual health?” I have to answer this question with another question, “Isn’t sex better when you are entirely engaged and in the moment?” Of course it is! When you’re joyfully and completely engaged in sex, that’s you in a mindful state. Mindfulness is conscious awareness of what you are feeling and experiencing in the present moment – sounds juicy to me!

It just goes to prove again that our most important sexual organ is our brain. We’ve become a culture of rabid multi-taskers, which has surely affected sexual health. For me, the more I practiced multi-tasking, the more difficult it was to focus on just one thing at a time. Guess which activity takes all my attention in order to be completely enjoyable. If I am focused on work issues, what to make for dinner and other flotsam from the day, how can I possibly be in the moment and in my body?

Now, if our experience of sex is deepened by mindfulness, doesn’t this apply to other things we do?” If we are consciously aware of what we are feeling and experiencing in the present moment, regardless of what we are doing, imagine how much better our enjoyment level would be. Also, if we really focused on other people when interacting with them, like we do during a really intense conversation, wouldn’t our connection to that person be that much deeper?

Good sex teaches us a lot about mindfulness. Whatever you are doing, to really enjoy it to the fullest you have to be completely and utterly mindful of the moment. It’s not easy to do because our minds are programmed to jump from thought to thought, but it’s worth the effort.

Do you find it difficult to focus on one thing at a time? How has that affected your enjoyment level?

Survival > Existence,

Debbie

Image courtesy of Cordelia Naumann