How can Sex be a Path to Growth?
Imagine if you never had had any kind of sex — no self-pleasure, no intimacy with partners, nada.
Would you be the person you are? No. You would not be.
While you often hear that “travel broadens your horizons” and “education is the passport to the future,” no one is telling you what every student of sex science knows: enjoyable sex grows your brain in good ways.
Would you like to know why sexual experience is necessary for developing emotional maturity and self-awareness? Read on.
Good Sex Improves Your Quality of Life
Cross-disciplinarian sciences — psychology, genetics, biology, cardiology, brain science — have learned something important about orgasms – orgasms improve whole-body health. Orgasms lower our odds of reproductive cancers, strokes, heart attacks, and depression. They promote stronger relationships and may be key to human longevity as well.
During the peak of COVID, a study showed that people who persisted in having a sex life fared far better, psychologically than those who did not. According to the researchers, “this study supported evidence that regular sex can have a protective effect on anxiety and depression, as well as improve relational and sexual health.”
What happens in the body is both the result of what happens in the brain — and, conversely, what happens in the brain is also guided by what happens in the body. Just as happy, healthy intimacy (and masturbation) can improve our overall quality of life, in body and in mind, the reverse is true as well. Constant sexual frustration, internal conflicts about sex, stress, shame, and most especially sexual trauma can drag you down, mentally and physically. It shrinks your personal potential. That’s why it’s important to spend some time and attention on creating good sex in your life.
Good Sex Grows Your Brain
Your brain responds in positive ways when you are having good sexual experiences and a satisfying sex life. Here are four ways that good sex improves your brain function.
- It relaxes you. When your brain shifts attention to focus on bodily pleasure, neurons start firing. The process pumps feel-good chemicals into your bloodstream that effectively heal and refresh you from your brain to your toes.
- It improves self-awareness. Good sex opens new doors to self-awareness. It is a powerful natural path to learn what works for you and teaches you new lessons about yourself and your relationships. These lessons are invaluable for having even better sex — and even better relationships.
- It reveals your true biological nature. Good sex busts myths you may have held about what “should” and “shouldn’t” happen in bed. Your primal responses may paint a new, emboldening picture of who you are. This can help you to center your identity around that authentic person.
- It increases self-confidence. The more you know about your sex/gender identity, the greater the odds of you finding a place of inner peace. The stimulation and learning experiences of enjoyable sex keep your mind stimulated as well. It makes your brain work better and harder, which in turn, makes you feel more alive, more competent, and more likely to feel optimistic too.
Good Sex Is the Ultimate Self-Learning Experience
So how is it that good sex grows your brain? Think of all the things you learn from positive intimacy. You may learn that:
–you are desirable, which affirms your value to yourself
–you have sexual potentials you didn’t know existed, which broadens your erotic repertoire
— you gain more control over your sexual responses, which gives you a stronger sense of agency
— when your body is happy, your brain is happy
To top it all off, the experience of ecstasy — which may occur before, during, or after orgasm — is both an out-of-body experience that transports you to a near spiritual state and a completely IN-BODY experience, since so many little buttons are being pushed as body and brain unify and bring you mind-altering life-affirming delight.
When you understand all this and put it into practice, it adds up to a healthier you, a happier one. Your brain will reward you with more than a temporary cocktail of the feel-good chemicals that orgasms produce. It will take you on the journey that Nature — not culture — intended for you all along.
To learn more of the ways good sex grows your brain (and improves your overall quality of life, check out my blog post on 10 Most Important Reasons to Have Orgasms.
photo credit: Vitaliy Shevchenko @ Unsplash
