Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash
In the last ten years, sex and anxiety has become a topic that I keep finding myself talking about with clients and colleagues. I find that it covers so much of our current lived experience in dating and relationships. Anxiety can come from burnout, relationship issues, financial stressors, political and systemic factors, and various forms of trauma.
Lately I’ve been branching out in who I talk to about sex and anxiety. I gotta say, it has felt pretty wild to put myself out to try on old and new hats. Some things I’ve ventured into in the last year:
Running men’s groups focused on sex and anxiety
Releasing a workbook on sex and anxiety for men
Podcast interviews (Listen here for my recent interview, or watch it below!)
It’s been a lot of fun. But, talking about anxiety, taking this leap into speaking to larger audiences definitely got my heart racing and I’ve been thankful for the mindfulness approaches I’ve learned and continue to teach others.
Not directly related to sex and anxiety has been interviews around sexual pleasure.
I’m particularly proud of my quotes in Glamour’s article on buying suction cup dildos (the holidays are coming up!). It was nice to go back to my days working in adult retail and help people figure out what brings them excitement and pleasure. This is a much different feeling than helping reduce fear and anxiety.
As I said, the experience of putting myself out there to talk about anxiety made me, ironically or not, hella nervous. However I worked past that harsh inner critic (or more accurately I will continue to work through that critical voice) and accepted good enough. My perfectionistic part of me, I call him Bagsley the uptight colonizer, had to be forced into the corner to take a break from trying to police my thoughts and feelings.
So while I was sleep deprived thanks to my newborn bundle, I looked past my flaws of foggy brain and took the leap to speak to a podcast about my work. Check out my interview below to learn more about mindfulness approaches to sex anxiety, as well as see me function with sleep deprivation!
What’s a way that you’ll approach the things that make you hella nervous? I’d love to read more in the comments below!
Hearts and handbags,
David