Feeling Myself: How Masturbation Can Crank Up Your Sex Life

If there’s one thing our society doesn’t encourage us to do, it’s getting in touch with our own bodies. We’re told our bodies need to look a certain way, that we shouldn’t masturbate, and are even told to feel ashamed of our sexual thoughts. This isn’t healthy. 

Our bodies are all built for sex and having a healthy attitude towards sexuality is crucial for any healthy relationship. To do that, you need to start enjoying your sexual side. The easiest way to do that is to masturbate frequently–and this is true for all genders. 

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As someone whose day job involves sexuality, it never ceases to amaze me how little credit people give masturbation. It’s a solo act that can rev up your sex life, improve your health, and also improve your understanding of your own sexuality. Don’t believe it? Take a look at these ways masturbation helps your love life out…

Masturbating improves your sexual health. 

Your genitals are a lot like most other muscles. It’s a “use it or lose it” kind of deal. If you don’t use those muscles on a regular basis, your pelvic floor and surrounding muscles will start to weaken and atrophy. 

With guys, atrophied sex muscles can lead to difficulty maintaining erections, premature ejaculation, and even libido loss. Studies also suggest that regular masturbation can help men prevent certain cancers. 

With girls, things can get more serious. Pelvic floor muscles are used during childbirth and often get damaged during the birth process. If your pelvic floor muscles aren’t strong and aren’t exercised into recovery, you may end up with a prolapsed vagina or might even lose your ability to hold your pee. 

If that isn’t scary enough, then think about what else can happen that can directly affect your sex life. Sexual atrophy can lead to vaginal dryness, losing vaginal tightness, and difficulty reaching orgasm. Masturbation helps you exercise those muscles and keeps them in shape. 

It also can improve your emotional health. 

Depression isn’t sexy, nor does it help your love life. As it turns out, sexual healing might be a thing, even if you don’t have a partner. 

There’s a ton of ways doing a solo session can help you feel better. Masturbation leads to orgasms, which release a ton of feel-good hormones throughout our body and brains. Studies also show that masturbation can improve confidence levels in the long and short term.

Having a solo session can also prevent you from making bad love decisions.

Did you ever want to date someone just because they were super hot? Sexual attraction can cloud the mind, and masturbation can clear it up. It’s a well-known phenomenon. The Japanese even have a word for it: kenjataimu. 

If you have been struggling with a guy who’s great in bed but a terrible person, it may be time to start masturbating more often.

Along with helping you avoid thinking with your groin, masturbation can also help you learn about your body and sexual preferences.

It’s no secret that sex ed is grossly underfunded and incomplete. Most people never get schooling on how to achieve orgasm, what to expect from a big O, or even how to explore their own sexuality. Masturbating is a good way to get a seriously “hands-on” education. 

Of course, masturbating isn’t just about touching the right zones to make you go wild. It’s about what you’re thinking about or fantasizing about while you do it. Finding the right “formula” to turn yourself on requires exploration and taking your time. 

When you take time to explore different sensations, fantasies, and ways of getting pleasure, you become your own sexpert. Masturbation gives you the keys to finding out what makes you tick and lets you unlock new dimensions in your love life. It lets you enjoy sex more and gives you a way to teach your lover what you want in bad.

If you want to have a good sex life, you need to tell your partner what you want and guide them to it. You can’t do that if you don’t know what makes you climax. Your partner won’t know what to do unless you tell them.

It helps you get rid of negative thoughts about sex.

Our society loves to shame sexuality, despite the fact that having open discussions about sex is proven to improve relationships, body image, and mental health. Sex shaming and body shaming are crazily common in our world…and it affects every single one of us.

We internalize the messages we hear, including these negative ones. Those messages can mess up peoples’ ability to be good lovers or even hold a relationship. Even if you were born into a household that is sex-positive, there’s a pretty decent chance that you might still have some hangups about your body. 

Multiple studies have shown that masturbation helps people get rid of sexual stigmas and body-related issues. It makes you more confident in your skin. That alone makes it worth doing, don’t you think?

Masturbation can also help ease the pressure to have sex when you’re in a relationship.

Not all sex drives are equal, and if yours is higher than your partner’s, it can be a problem. Mismatched libidos can cause one partner to feel unsatisfied and the other to feel pressured into sex they don’t want. 

You can’t badger your partner into sex they don’t want to have. It’s not right and can actually be fairly traumatic for the person you’re with. However, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have your needs met. 

Masturbation can help you get the pleasure you need when your partner just isn’t up for it. If the mismatch isn’t too bad, masturbation can help solve that problem and keep your relationship happy. 

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Some fantasies are best kept to solo sessions.

Though masturbation is a great way to explore fantasies and learn about things you want to do with your partner, it’s important to keep a reality check on your fantasies. Not every kink or fetish you have should be acted upon. In fact, some kinks are literally impossible to act out!

Just because you can’t act on them doesn’t mean you shouldn’t fantasize about them. You can still get pleasure from them if you masturbate to them, and at times, that’s the only safe way to do it.