While sex and meditation are not obvious bedfellows, there’s a tradition linking both which goes back for centuries. Tantric practice from the East viewed the energy generated through sexual activity as a possible springboard for specific meditative states. But that connection isn’t a one-way street: Sex might be a way of improving meditation, but in case you are looking to liven up your sexual life, meditation might be the ideal route. Here is why:

1. Meditation helps with anxiety management.

Meditation is probably best known for helping to handle anxiety, and anxiety is terrible for intercourse. Anxiety is your body’s response to being overwhelmed from the stress of our lives, which activates the fight-or-flight reply and makes us feel lightheaded, nervous, and even nauseous. We feel the desire to run, hide, or struggle in reaction to stress–to not make love. While this occurs, our libido takes a hammering.

Additionally, stress requires energy. Section of the physiological reaction to stress is the release of adrenaline and associated hormones. We’re then primed for actions along with hypervigilance, but this takes a great deal of energy, and perhaps not surprisingly, we all feel tired long until we reach bed. To compound the issue, we do not sleep well with our mind ill at ease, relentlessly searching for answers to our problems. No energy equals “not tonight.”

2. Meditation helps eliminate distractions.

Meditation aids our brains detect if we are distracted. And if one spouse is diverted during sex, it is not great for anyone. If you are considering work, finances, or life in general, your spouse will know. They might not understand what or who you are thinking about, but they know you are not entirely present. It is excruciating (to say the least) to understand your spouse isn’t paying attention when you are at your most vulnerable. Meditation compels us to move our focus right back to where we need it. Become more cautious –your spouse will notice and want to reciprocate.

3. Meditation can help you get the spark back.

Listening is one of the most effective aphrodisiacs. When you first began dating, you’re probably fascinated by what your partner had to say, and they had been fascinated by what you had to say. You both believed noticed, heard, and had a feeling of a strong connection. The excitement that emanates from this is our urge to physicalize the emotional union. But after months or years of being with the same person, you have probably stopped listening.

You might still have physical attraction, but over the years the emotional desire that kindles actual fire dies down a bit. Meditation teaches you how you can listen properly again by assisting you to see when your focus is no longer entirely on what they are saying and provides you with the ability to put it back. To get the spark back, begin listening fully. Meditation is the practice that shows you how.

4. Meditation can help you understand the power of now.

Meditation helps make sex special again by ripping you from your routine and waking you up to a innate present moment awareness. While automaticity is good for brushing your teeth, it is not quite as good for intimacy. Part of meditation is about being alert to right now. We attempt to sit observation of the current moment by placing our focus on things happening in the present, such as our breathing.

We see how difficult that is when we become distracted but train ourselves over and over to return our focus to learn what’s going on in the moment as opposed to what is occurring in our minds. “Automaticity” is something that occurs when we slide into automatic behaviour instead of paying attention. It’s the way we drive home without having to think of the route or the way we brush our teeth while considering the day ahead. Plus it may be how we end up having sex after a while. You do so, I will do so, you stroke , I’ll rub there–and let’s get some sleep. It is practical, efficient, and passionless. Wake up to the now thanks to meditation, and you can bring back the closeness by being completely present.

5. Meditation can help you read your partner’s mind.

Most top athletes understand they need to dismiss the thinking mind and allow their natural ability come through to do at their finest. Some call this “getting out of their own way.” This is all about realizing the mind as being good at a lot of things like logical thought but also it is seriously restricted. It’s about recognizing our subconscious thoughts as being much faster, more aware, and much more competent at a number of different things. Meditation is the practice which could allow you to calm your thinking and help you get in contact with that awareness that stays behind your conscious brain. It’s this portion of yourself which will pick up and process countless subtle cues from the partner’s breathing, their entire body, sighs, and responses which the thinking mind will completely overlook. You will just instinctively understand what the ideal move is without understanding why. You might not really be psychic, but your partner might believe you’re.