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Stocking Your Personal Sexual Kitchen

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Stocking Your Personal Sexual Kitchen

Most people these days are working or/and taking the kids to this or that.  It seems at the end of the day you might be doing all you can, just to get dinner on the table, before you grab a bath and fall into bed.  Sometimes the time for a sexual encounter with your partner doesn’t become an opportunity until the weekend, and for some, that becomes a rushed experience.  The reasons ‘why not to’ can become longer than the shopping list for stocking your kitchen for the week.  Why is that?  Isn’t your sexual health as important as your physical health?  If it isn’t, why not?

I have talked to some of my friends about their personal sexual kitchens, and their responses made good sense.  However, there are other factors to consider.  One friend, a nurse, raising two children just has enough time to get home and have her children taken care of before she is too tired to crawl into bed herself.  Working twelve-hour shifts can really take a lot out of you.  There also comes meeting the needs of children and a partner who works eight-hour shifts.  Just subtle differences in a schedule can cause a little too much for one person, and not enough for another.  I understand her situation, and that both want to get the kids to bed and get to sleep as quickly as they can before the alarm goes off.  Staying up late can lead to a slow and sleepy day at work, but so can a restless night of tossing and turning.  Why not take advantage of the body’s natural spice, oxytocin.  This is a powerful hormone that acts as a neurotransmitter in the brain.  It increases in response to affection, and released after climax.  It provides such a feeling of intense relaxation, it can make you drift off to sleep faster than you normally would.  No sense in using melatonin or another supplement, when your body has its own natural kitchen of spice just waiting to be used.

Maybe getting to sleep is not your problem?  Every situation is different, as with another friend of mine who is raising her two young children between the deployments of her Army husband.  You would think this couple would have no problems.  However, both children alternate being sick from one week to another.  She is a business owner, a mother of two sick children, a daughter of a mother who is fighting cancer, and the wife of an absentee husband.  When he is home, what better stress reliever than sex.  You would think she would need the intimacy and the health benefits herself.  Health benefits?  That’s right, being sexually active contributes to lowering your blood pressure.  This girl stays stressed out; so what if this sounds like you?  Treat yourself to the spice of hypotension for good health, and less stress.

Not every situation is the same, as none of my friends are.  My friend Marybelle works twenty-four hour shifts.  She also has a daughter. Between work and obligations as a mother and such, she still makes time to get to the gym.  There’s date night as well.  She never has any complaints from her partner about their sex life, nor from her, or her doctor.  Her doctor?  Going to the gym is a regular thing for Marybelle.  She does it to look and feel good, and regular exercise is proven to benefit your health in many ways.  For her, it means a healthy heart, lower stress levels and a higher libido.  For her partner, it means a longer life with her, a smile on her face and nights where she will take advantage of burning those extra calories in the bedroom.  Did you know that burning the midnight oil for sex, burns calories as well?  So don’t feel bad if you didn’t make it to the gym today, because you had to run by the store and stock the fridge.  Get to bed a little early and burn those calories.

You probably have great sexual health, and a happy partner to boot.  It is just occasionally you have had a bad day, or a long day.  On those days, you just don’t feel like it.  You tell your partner, not tonight.  Sometimes they understand, and sometimes the drama becomes so bad, you think it would have been easier to just have said, “Oh, alright, just make it quick.”  We’ve all been there.  These are the times when you should remember our title: Stocking Your Personal Sexual Kitchen.  The body is filled with so many wonderful chemicals, or as I call them, the spices of life.  There are endorphins like oxytocin, a neurotransmitter in the brain stimulated to release by affection.  Serotonin is a hormone found in multiple places of the body.  It is found in the pineal gland in the center of the brain, the central nervous system, blood platelets, and the digestive tract.  It is a neurotransmitter that reduces your appetite, your sexual behavior and it suppresses the way you perceive pain.  Prolactin is a hormone secreted by the pituitary gland and is vital for regulation of the immune system.  All of these chemicals are contained in semen, and are absorbed through the tissues of the vaginal walls.  You may not feel like it before, but afterwards, you will feel so much better, and you will be glad you did.

As I said, I know every situation is different.  I know for some people, sexual health takes a back seat to physical health.  For both parties, this is a real setback.  When a person suffers from a chronic illness, sometimes pain from that illness can destroy sexual health.  For the partner, it seems this part of their life is over.  However, I ran across some very valuable information on boosting the immune system.  It just so happens, that studies from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania says individuals who have sex once or twice a week show 30 percent higher levels of an antibody called immunoglobulin A.[i]  What a wonderful way to boost your immune system!

Who knew that physical health was so positively affected by sexual activity?  Now that we do know, when you sit down to make out that shopping list, which type do you stock on those fruits and vegetables for the week?  Add some strawberries, some mushrooms, maybe some whipped cream from the dairy section or oysters from the seafood department.  Whatever aphrodisiacs you like, add them to you kitchen list.  Stock you sexual kitchen for the week as well, and get some spice back in your life, and in your bedroom.


[i] Sex Does the Body Good: Regular Romps Can Provide a Host of Physiological Benefits. (2006, December 19). Forbes. Retrieved February 22, 2014, from http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16282622/ns/health-forbes_com/t/sex-does-body-good/#.UwlDi4Wtx8s

Brenda Stapleton

Brenda Stapleton is a self-employed Freelance Editor/Writer from Louisiana, who writes while she travels throughout the Unites States. She currently resides in Tennessee. She possesses a Bachelor’s and Master’s Degree in Behavioral Sciences, Nursing Education at the Undergraduate Level, and Education with an ELA specialty, and Technical Communication and Writing at the graduate level. She has certified as a Personal Trainer, and is currently working towards her certifications as a Health Coach with a specialty in Sexual Health Education. With Advanced Certifications in Health, her directive is to gain a better understanding of pharmaceutical related patterns, to enable her to continue her work with health care professionals.

  

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