Intimacy is a great tool for helping you fight those nasty little mental demons who try and take charge of your thoughts, processes and behaviours. We all have them! It doesn’t matter your age, gender, sexual preference or culture each of us on occasion, struggle with pretty sh!tty thoughts, feelings, emotions and sometimes poor mental health.
Sex itself has powerful physical benefits! It can lower blood pressure, help the immune system and also burns calories. Great! But what about the psychological benefits?
There is evidence that being close to your partner, can lower stress levels. Physical intimacy can trigger the release of all kinds of chemicals in the brain including:
Dopamine – which plays a major role in reward-motivated behaviour, focused attention and can increases motivation
Endorphins – our body’s natural pain and stress fighters, and
Oxytocin – affectionately known as “the cuddle hormone”, which can trigger feelings of compassion, connection, and bonding.
Prolactin is the hormone released following an orgasm which leaves us feeling relaxed and sleepy.
Sex is proven to reduce stress and anxiety, which are common feeders of mental health challenges but a lack of sex can also lead to negative feelings of a lack of self-worth and low self-esteem, which again, feed into that mental wellbeing.
We all have needs right? We need to eat, drink and we need oxygen to survive but we do have psychological needs that, for a healthy mindset and emotional wellbeing need to be met.
These are considered key psychological needs:
- Safety
- Love/Connection
- Esteem
- Autonomy
If these needs are not met regularly, then we will suffer.
If you have a partner, and you have reduced your love making, then consider whether these needs are still being met. If you no longer have sex at all, then it is likely most of these needs are not being met and if you think about it, how are you going really? Sex is not just a physical act to reach climax. It brings for us powerful feelings, emotion and a healthy mindset. Our cognitive ability improves, our motivation builds, our energy levels can increase and how we feel about ourselves should improve.
Relationships, intimacy, connection and sex trigger so much chemical release and activity that it is considered extremely healthy, for you physically and psychologically.
Have a look at my other articles around improving your sex life! Each of us can make improvements if we really try.
Ella.💕