“After a few years of meditation practice we can even learn how to occasionally ignore ourselves. And what relief that can be!”

­- Wes Nisker

On the surface, sex and meditation don’t appear to have that much in common. After all, when you’re meditating, you’re trying to rid your mind of all thoughts – especially those oh so distracting sexy thoughts. We think of sex as sensual and primal, while we see meditation as more spiritual and philosophical. To most people, they’re polar opposites.

Actually, it turns out sex and meditation are more like two sides of the same coin. According to a recent study in Scientific American (Scientificamerican article) when you meditate or have sex, it activates nearly the whole of the right side of your brain. What’s surprising about that? It’s the left side of our brain that’s associated with pleasure, not the right.

So what do sex and meditation have in common? They both make us less self-aware. In other words, they’re both activities where we’re totally lost in the moment, freed from our usual anxieties, doubts and fears. The joy of sex isn’t just the physical pleasure, but the emotional release – just like meditation.

And meditation can help improve your sex life, just like every other part of your life (just ask Sting). The more mindful you are during sex, the more intensely pleasurable it becomes.

So if you thought meditation was all about incense and baggy clothes, think again. Meditation has a sexy side.