Search any list of the benefits of yoga and they all say yoga can help reduce stress because it promotes relaxation, which is the natural opposite of stress. But yoga also can cause soreness, tons of sweat, and exhaustion. What else may cause the same effects? Sex, more specifically BDSM sex.
When the researchers looked at people engaging in BDSM-style sex, they noticed that they were regularly entering a “flow state” of mindfulness, which is apparently the same mental state athletes get into when they’re “in the zone.”
The study’s lead author, Brad Sagarin, Ph.D., explains:
"Flow is an enjoyable and pleasurable state that people get into when they are performing an activity that requires a high level of skill. It’s a state in which the rest of the world kind of fades away and somebody is concentrating very intensely only on what they are doing."
I've tried yoga before. Stretching, bending, balancing, thinking, and not thinking. It can be relaxing if you can channel out the grunts and groans of others as well as the rest of your life. You can get into the zone with yoga and into a "flow state" and that can be very rewarding. Yoga hasn't always been 100% successful in the relaxation aspect, but maybe it is time to give some BDSM a try.
I know what you’re wondering: How in the world did the researchers go about finding this out? Well, they recruited seven couples and randomly assigned one partner to be the “top” (aka the dominant who gives orders) and the other to be the “bottom” (aka the submissive who obeys the dominant).
The researchers then watched the couples have sex (yeah, I’m not making this up), while simultaneously taking notes of the types of activities occurring. Afterwards, they measured the couples’ stress, cortisol and testosterone levels, mood, feelings of closeness, and their “flow state” experiences.
The researchers found that the “flow state” phenomenon during this kind of sex is, in fact, real and achievable. All people reported better moods, showed lower levels of stress and scored highly on the flow state scale. – elitedaily.com
Is BDSM sex for you? Maybe you already do it. If you don't, does the idea of giving over control to someone else create even more stress? Or what about the stress of being in control of someone else?
Even though his team solely focused on BDSM-style intercourse, Sagarin offered some words of encouragement for people with less adventurous sex lives:
"The mindful attention that people give to each other in the context of the BDSM scene has applications in other kinds of sexual interactions. If people are really focused on each other and the positive experience of their partner, we might see similar kinds of effects." – elitedaily.com
If you branched out to do yoga to relieve your stress, are you ready to try something a little more sexual to ease the mind?
What are your thoughts?
Maybe some of you do both.
Which is better for relieving stress?
h/t: elitedaily.com, Candice Jalili
As an experienced lifestyle
As an experienced lifestyle FemDom, BDSM doesnt have to have anything to do with sex, and assuming it does will do you no favors if you become active in your local kink scene.