Easing Stress with the Benefits of Sex
Sex is a great mood-enhancer and stress-buster – it literally switches off your worries and fears, and focuses your mind and body in the present.
The wonderful feeling of relaxation and well-being that you experience following orgasm is known as the afterglow. This perfectly sums up the warm sensation that floods your body and mind after sex, banishing the strain and pressures that can combine to cause anxiety and stress. Sex helps to focus your mind on the present by emphasising your sensual, tactile and playful aspects.
Sexual Revolution
Throughout the ages, sexual energy has been expressed or suppressed by social convention and fashion. In Victorian England, where constrictive clothing and rigid moral codes were the norm, body piercing and fetish-sex flourished in secret. In contrast, during the 1920’s when loose dresses, short, androgynous hair and rising hemlines were fashionable, there was a new sense of sexual liberation and naturalism. This cycle was repeated with even more dramatic results as the swinging sixties took over from the comparatively conservative fifties.
Contraceptives: Playing it Safe
Worrying about unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) can seriously limit your enjoyment of sex, so taking the appropriate precautions is a must. Barrier methods such as male and female condoms offer maximum protection from STDs and are also reliable contraceptives when used in combination with spermicide.
Experimenting
Find a brand that suits you best for sensitivity and comfort. Used with lubricant they needn’t be a passion killer. If you’re comfortable with your lover’s sexual health, then oral contraception can be liberating; it frees your mind to focus on the action.
Stress-Busting Benefits of Sex
The stress-relieving effects of sex can be experienced both before and after intercourse as well as during, and involve building trust and intimacy with your lover.
Establishing Trust
Having sex is one of the most intimate activities that you can share with another human being, because in order to fully experience pleasure you have to surrender control. This is only possible if you trust your sexual partner completely, so that you are not feeling constantly self-conscious and tense. Worrying about how you look or what you might be asked to do will distract you from your own sensuality.
Sexual Discussion
To really experience the stress-busting benefits of sex, discuss your fears, likes and dislikes with your partner. Establish what activities you’re happy to do and so create an atmosphere of openness and trust, and then you can get to it!
Sensual Touch
The best sex happens when you are most relaxed and feeling at one with your body. Easing muscular aches and pains with a hot bath, a sensual massage or lightly stroking the skin will gently awaken and stimulate the senses, so that arousal and enjoyment are enhanced.
Erotic Oils
Using scented oils can make the experience more erotic. Touching that is not overtly sexual or that doesn’t lead to intercourse is often recommended by sex therapists. It removes the pressure of performance and helps each partner attune to their own and the other person’s pleasure. Making eye contact and kissing will increase the feeling of intimacy so that you can both fully unwind.
Fun and Games
Having fun with your sexual partner helps to keep the experience fresh and exhilarating, and avoids the sex between you getting stale and predictable. It has long been said that the most erogenous organ in the body is the mind, so feel free to use your imagination! Discuss your personal boundaries and fantasies with your lover and then indulge your senses in those that appeal to your.
Spontaneity
Role-play, costumes, sex toys, and impromptu sex dates can all be exciting, breaking your routine and helping you to feel refreshed and invigorated. Try phone sex to help set the scene for steamy sessions to come.
The Good Stuff
The benefits of sex are much like those experienced in Yoga or meditation, but arguably more pleasurable! By building sexual tension and releasing it through orgasm, you and your partner can also eliminate muscular and emotional tension held in the body.
Well-Being
Sex can be seen as a healthy, replenishing activity with fabulous advantages to the body, mind and spirit. Much of this is due to endorphins, the natural highs that are released in the brain during sexual arousal. These are healing, detoxing and mood-enhancing chemicals, and their effects can be fully appreciated when you experience deep sleep after orgasm.
Health Matters 