What is Meditative Masturbation…and how can this kind of sexual mindfulness help with female sexual empowerment?

With all of us dealing with a whole range of emotions and changes to our lives due to the coronavirus pandemic, I’ve been getting more interview requests around the topic of masturbation. I loved being able to take a deep dive into meditative masturbation through the lens of mindfulness and female sexual empowerment with Sandra Song for her article You Should All Be Practicing Masturbation Mediation with PAPER Magazine.

Below are direct quotes from the article; you can read the entire meditative masturbation article here.

Unlike traditional forms of meditation, masturbation meditation is a mindfulness practice that's meant to increase awareness of what's pleasurable for you, all while encouraging a slower, more intentional approach to the solo exploration of your sexuality. Granted, this doesn't just mean you can rub one out while watching Pornhub and call yourself enlightened — in fact, orgasming isn't the goal at all. Instead, masturbation meditation is a proven therapeutic tool that not only changes the way you feel in the here and now, but also alters the way you think about sex and yourself….
With that said, masturbation meditation has proven to be especially helpful for women who are uncomfortable with the idea of touching themselves in the first place. As Dr. Jenn Gunsaullus — an intimacy coach and sociologist who specializes in sex and sexual health — explains, she initially developed her masturbation meditation audio guide with the intention of helping women "move through negative thought patterns [about their bodies] in a healthy way."
Per Dr. Gunsaullus, masturbation meditation pushes practitioners to get to the root of their issues with sex by directly confronting, processing, and eventually overcoming deeply-ingrained belief systems — something that's especially important for women who "have been trained to view their body as the enemy or that self-pleasure isn't okay."
You'll learn how to center your focus on pleasure rather than performance.
"What people struggle with when it comes to meditation is that they feel like they're doing nothing, but that's the value of it — of retraining our brains in boredom and sitting with whatever comes up," she explains. "So doing it with masturbation, it's about trying to overcome shame or embarrassment. Using mindfulness skills, you're being present with whatever shows up, whether it's positive or negative."
Dr. Gunsaullus also says that masturbation meditation also has the ability to drastically shift the way you approach intimacy — something she believes will be all the more important once things return to normal and we're able to see people outside of our immediate households.
"We're already having a crisis of vulnerability in our country that coronavirus is just further turning on its head, and it's going to have an impact on [the way we interact intimately] as a society in the long-run," she explains, emphasizing that now is a "fantastic" time to start practicing masturbation meditation. And that's especially true if you find yourself spiraling because you're spending too much of your emotional energy on social media or following the news.
"If you have extra time on your hands, invest in your personal, sexual and spiritual growth. Get to know and like yourself better, which is what meditative masturbation is all about," Dr. Gunsaullus concludes. "This is a really uniquely ideal time for many folks to slow down and know themselves better at a deeper level."
Get started with masturbation meditation, here.