What is Sexual Wellness?

Sexual wellness can be understood through the framework of the larger wellness movement, which has blossomed over the last few decades. Our awareness continues to expand around how to actively make choices that can support us, not just to get by and survive, but to truly THRIVE — mind, body, heart and soul.

Mindfulness, exercise, nutrition, and creative expression are some of the many ways we have begun to embrace the idea of actively incorporating wellness into our day to day lives individually and as a society. Sexuality may be the final frontier, a lesser known and often taboo approach, but certainly one of the most potent ways to tend to our vitality at every age and every stage.

Traditionally, sexual wellness in the medical arena has been defined by the absence of disease, but it is past time we look beyond this limited lens and embrace the many holistic wellness benefits of tending to our sexuality. These benefits include, but far transcend, a satisfying sex life.

The impetus for taking a sexual wellness journey is generally sexual dissatisfaction with no medical indication. Complaints including low libido, difficulty orgasming, and pain with sex are among the most common. Much of the time, especially for women, there are no indications of any pathology; in other words, there is nothing “wrong” that can be diagnosed through the lens of modern medicine. However, each of these complaints can significantly detract from quality of life, intimacy, and connection both in and out of the bedroom.

While each person’s sexual wellness journey is wholly unique, three key elements that can be incorporated are:

1) Building a foundation of safety within oneself to surrender and feel, both solo and in the presence of another person.

2) Healing the rift between mind and body by cultivating deeper connection with the
body, the sensations within, and subsequently your inner wisdom.

3) Learning to connect to sexual energy at will and move it throughout the body,clearing physical and emotional blocks along the way and opening pathways to deeper authentic expression.

***BONUS: All these lead to feeling more, feeling more pleasure, and allowing that pleasure to flow through in orgasm, multiple orgasms, or omni-orgasm (a continual orgasmic flow state).

Sexual wellness coaching sessions are key in unraveling patterns that do not serve us and laying the foundation to rewire them. Then, much like when we go to the gym or meditate regularly, the effects of the sessions are amplified with regular practice. They build and expand our pleasure pathways. Sexual wellness practices include somatic meditations and body-based practices that can incorporate breathwork, sound, touch, movement, and visualization. These practices are guided by the client’s desires and tailored to each person’s unique individual needs.

While each of the above three elements are vital to experiencing expansive sexual pleasure, you can see how each one transcends the bedroom. At its core, the free flow of sexual energy requires us to be in alignment with ourselves so any places where we have been hiding from our truth inevitably comes to light. It is common, as clients tend to their sexual wellness, for them to notice the effects reverberating into other aspects of their lives from the deeply personal to professional. For example, falling more deeply into love or leaving relationships that have been dysfunctional for years, exploring new career paths and/or adventures, and living in deeper alignment with their inner truth and desire.

There are many other potential psychological and physiological benefits to a sexual wellness journey such as increased collagen production, breast health, a greater sense of joy and vitality, a toned pelvic floor, preventing incontinence and/or prolapse, among others. To learn more and explore taking a sexual wellness journey yourself, I invite you to enjoy this complimentary masterclass: Foundations in Sexual Wellness.

Essentially, sexual wellness is tending to our sexual energy, which is one and the same as our life force, our creative energy. The more freely it flows, the better we feel, the more authentic our expression, and the more we can savor and enjoy every drop available to us in this lifetime.

Sheila Kamara Hay is the Sexual Wellness Coach here at TārāMD. Her work is centered around the conviction that the free flow of sexual energy is paramount to our vitality and wellness at every stage and age. To book a session call the office at (212) 988-0562.