The book titled, “The Brain that Changes Itself,” by Dr. Norman Doidge, provides evidence that both mental exercise and physical practice can alter brain structure.
You might wonder, “What does this have to do with female orgasm?”
Well, a lot actually.
Dr. Doidge describes compelling evidence that both mental exercise and physical practice produce similar changes in the brain’s motor system.
Mental rehearsal involves imagined, mental practice of performing a task. In the case or orgasm it means, imagining oneself experiencing pleasure and orgasm. In other words, “one imagines oneself experiencing pleasure and orgasm without having to physically touch the genitals.” Research on imagery-produced orgasms in women, conducted by Dr. Whipple in 1992, discovered that orgasm has been reported to occur in response to imagery in the absence of any physical stimulation. In fact, she discovered that imagery-induced orgasms are of the same magnitude as orgasms produced by genital self-stimulation.
The practice of using mental-imagery can be particularly helpful to train or re-train the brain to experience orgasm and pleasure, especially for women who have never had an orgasm or for women do not orgasm as often as desired.
Mental rehearsal lends itself to research that shows that women who meditate and practice mindfulness have a better sex life. The quieting of the mind so it can engage in, fantasy and imagination, for example, proves that the brain is being re-trained. The brains re-training is called, neuroplasticity, which is the brain’s ability to reorganize itself in response to learning.
In the next blog post, I will discuss creating a pleasure practice, which is the physical practice Dr. Doidge speaks about in the brain changing or re-training itself.