FM
satisfy both yourself and your partner during sex plays an important
role in happiness and wellbeing. But before we can hope to achieve
ecstasy in the bedroom, we need to understand that sex is more
than a mere physical experience. Our minds and emotions are key
in developing and maintaining intimacy, and establishing a deep
connection with our partner.
So how can mindfulness help? Well, mindfulness teaches us to be
100% present to our senses, all of which are stimulated during sex.
Medical research also suggests that relaxation, one of the well-
known benefits of the practice, is essential for our sex drive and
ability to achieve orgasm.
Last year, a study by leading psychologist and sexual arousal
expert Dr Lori Brotto of the University of British Columbia, Canada,
found mindfulness helped those who felt ‘sexually disconnected’.
The report revealed mindfulness skills increased detection of sexual
sensations, desire and arousal.
2 Mindfulness can make you smarter
Researchers at UCLA studied the brains of people who had
meditated for years comparing them with those who never
meditated or who only did it for a short period of time. They took
MRI scans of 100 people, half meditators and half non-meditators.
They were fascinated to find that long-time meditators showed
higher levels of gyrification (a folding of the cerebral cortex believed
to be associated with faster information processing). In a study
published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience in February 2012, they
shared that the more years a person had been meditating, the more
gyrification their MRIs revealed.
3 Mindfulness can take you to
the Olympics
Don’t worry, competitive mindfulness meditation is not yet an
Olympic sport! But you might be surprised to find out how many of
your sporting heroes have turned to mindfulness to increase their
ability to dive better, sprint faster, hit harder and jump higher. From
Team GB’s Tom Daley to the US sporting heroes Michael Jordan
and Derek Jeter, meditation is giving sportsmen the edge over their
rivals. A short, simple, daily practice helps athletes build focused
attention, manage their stress, see their opponents clearly, and treat
failure as feedback.4 Mindfulness helps you make
better decisions
A 2014 study by researchers at INSEAD in Singapore and The
Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania led by Andrew
Hafenbrack found that just 15 minutes of mindfulness practice
reduced subjects’ vulnerability to the sunk-cost bias (the human
tendency to throw good money after bad once an initial investment
has been made). This is a well-known error in the world of
finance where traders with a heavy sunk-cost bias can lose large
sums of money fast, by compounding the situation with further
bad decisions.
This supports the theory that without mindful awareness, the
human brain tends to ruminate on past losses and potential future
embarrassments, leading to poor choices. Mindfulness meditation,
on the other hand, increases the capacity to remain centred in
the now from which we have better chances of making the next
right move.5 Mindfulness builds true strength
If you are still wondering whether mindfulness has anything to offer
you, consider also that even the US Marines have implemented and
studied the effects of mindfulness training. As expected, Marines
who received Mindfulness-Based Mind Fitness Training (MMFT) prior
to deployment reported a significant decrease in stress-perception
in the field.For me this is where true strength arises, the capacity to meet both
good times and adversity with resilience.
I honestly believe that mindfulness is as fundamental as food to a
human being.
To be the best I can be, I wouldn’t start the day without it.Neil Seligman is the founder of the corporate consultancy, The
Conscious Professional, providing mindfulness training to top-tier
companies and the Author of 100 Mindfulness Meditations.“So here’s the thing.
Mindfulness is not just
about stress, anxiety
and counting your
breath – it is also about
strength, performance,
and excellence.”