Recently I heard an interview of Barry Komisaruk of Rutgers University about his research of the female brain during orgasm. He studies the brain waves of women masturbating while in an fMRI machine. I was perplexed. While I have been fascinated by the human brain for some time now, this took it to a whole new level!
Orgasms in women:
increase blood flow to all parts of the brain
increase nutrients and oxygen in the brain
activates (or stimulates…pun intended) the whole brain- did you read that? The WHOLE brain.
keep the brain sharp
decrease stress,
ease depression
increase longevity
block pain.
This last one is particularly interesting to me (though all are amazing in and of themselves) because for 2 years, I suffered an increasingly painful and debilitating injury. I know what living with pain does for the psyche. It literally almost killed me. If you are in pain, you’re simply not at your best. Komisaruk has discovered that the same part of the brain that is responsible for pain, is also responsible for orgasms. Two sides of the same coin. Pain and pleasure.
Now here’s where my brain starts to stray from the research and deeper questions into woo-woo. If that is true, and if it is also true that we often unconsciously create situations to “correct” for any way we separate from our highest Self and Source (or God, Spirit, Universe, whatever you want to call it), then is manifesting (often unconsciously) pain a way to return to pleasure?
It’s kinda sick and twisted, and yet oh-so-brilliant. Part of what pain does is creates a depth to our experiences. The bitter contrasts the sweet. If you can create this pain as a reminder of the sweetness, if you can return to the sweetness after experiencing the pain, imagine how rich your life is. And because you “survived” and returned home to the sweetness (or Light and Love in woo talk), you can help others remember, too.
I believe when you have allowed yourself to go deep into the pain, returning to pleasure often feels impossible. Especially if you have ever uttered the words, “I never wan to do/feel that again!” Your mind creates a significant map to make that request a reality. How do you override that? Simply by being willing to feel the pleasure again.
Start small. You look at something in nature and really look at it. As I look out my window at the forest covered in fog, there is a beauty in the white-gray, the periodic transparency when I can see through to the hills behind it, how it seems to flow and dance through and with the trees. It would be easy to be frustrated and nervous about if this will run my plans of being int he sunshine later. Later isn’t now. Now is all we have. So I am willing to seek the beauty in this moment.
Think big. Imagine living orgasmically. That would mean living without depression and stress, being fully engaged, having a healthy brain that is functioning on all cylinders. Imagine what you could create. Imagine not judging yourself or others. Imagine being happy just because. Now that seems like a lovely way to go through life.
Act now. Engage the 5 senses. Be willing to feel pleasure, live pleasure. Let go of the fear of judgment. Seek the beauty in everything (it’s there). Right now, set your gaze on something other than this article and see if you can find the beauty in what you’re looking at, see how your 5 senses engage.
If Gandhi was accurate in telling us we must be the change we wish to see in this world and if so many of us wish to see peace, we have to be willing to re-experience pleasure more regularly. We have to be willing to release the guilt, shame, and blame that keep us unconsciously creating the painful experiences to self-correct while the mind’s map keeps directing us away from the risk of being hurt. That is an internal war we need to cease waging and it starts with a choice. Give yourself permission to chose pleasure. The results just might be orgasmic!