If you ever needed a reason to sit absolutely still and think about nothing for a little while, then this is it. Researchers have found a link in the way the brain reacts during pleasurable sex and meditation. The two sound antithetical - meditation is the practice of getting comfortable, slowing down and concentrating on your breath. However, sex should also begin with these steps. A sex educator who studied under Dr. Deepak Chopra found that the trance state she reached while meditating took her to that same "otherworldly" place that great sex did. So what's the connection? Researchers found that meditation activates the left side of your brain, and sex activates the right side. But the manner in which the activities stimulate the opposite sides of the brain is similar and lead to the same result - a lack of self-awareness.
The "chatter" in our brains - that nagging voice that brings you back to real life and real stress, reminding you of obligations, imperfections and other negative things - is turned off when we meditate successfully. Basically, successful meditation involves slowing the breath down and concentrating only on the breath while in a comfortable position. If we're comfortable and enjoying ourselves during sex, that chatter goes away in a similar fashion. Losing those physical and mental boundaries achieves that stress release many devotees of meditation crave for releasing stress. In fact, MRI scans of Tibetan monks who meditated on compassion reveal that the left side of the brain - where happiness is measured - was more active. Sexual activity lit up the right side of the brain in a similar fashion when scanned. Now that's something to "om" about.
