Have a great laugh, have a great life – and a great love life

All too often, sex is taken as a serious matter. Time to perform, to follow the script and get the job done. No laughing matter there. But this is a bit of a shame. Sexual play can be a beautiful, spontaneous interaction, an opportunity to let our natural state of energy rise and fill our bodies and our senses. And laughter has much more in common with sex than you might think. Plus, bringing laughter into the bedroom can make your love life even better. Here are a few ways that laughter and sex are connected:

1.Laughter and sex both relax us and make us feel more comfortable. They help to drop the stress, to bring a more lighthearted feeling into the moment. Laughing can lift your mood and ease your mind, helping you to be present and embodied. Bringing laughter into your sensual play can help you to drop the anxiety, release thoughts of performance, and step into spontaneity.

This is just the beginning, though. Laughter actually makes us more attractive. Even a simple smile can bring our features to life, but a full belly laugh will drop our guard and let us shine. And laughter eases any awkwardness or discomfort that we feel, helping us to enjoy intimacy and sensual play more fully. Plus, laughter during sex can feel amazing. When a woman laughs with her man inside of her, her vaginal muscles will tighten and ripple, sending juicy sensations through both of you.

2. Both laughter and sex help you to stay healthy, in more ways than one. They both ramp up the immune system and raise the levels of antibodies in our bloodstream. Laugh regularly and you might find that you hardly ever have to deal with a cold or flu again. The same thing happens with sex. People who have regular sex have 30% higher levels of a key antibody – immunoglobin A – than those who don’t.

That’s not the only health benefit. Laughter and sex also help us to stay fit. You can burn 10 to 40 calories just by laughing for ten to 15 minutes. 15 minutes of sex will burn an average of 72 calories. Both engage the core muscles as well, the muscles responsible for overall strength and fitness.

3. Aside from the psychological benefits, sex and laughter both elevate our moods and heighten pleasure in physiological ways. Our brains are constantly changing and reshaping. Everything that we do helps to create neural pathways. Regular laughter or sex builds stronger pathways for the experience of pleasure and sensation, making it easier for us to feel good.

This is reflected in our hormonal levels as well. Both laughter and sex help to balance our hormones and up the levels of feel good hormones. Hormones related to stress, like adrenaline and cortisol, drop with both sex and laughter, while the pleasure hormone endorphin is released into the bloodstream. The overall effect is better health and more enjoyment on every level.

4. When we laugh, our bodies go through many of the same changes we experience during and after sex. First, we tap into a level of energy that helps to transform our entire state of being. We always carry around a reservoir of pleasure energy, but often it remains below the surface. With laughter and sex, this energy bubbles up and is released through breath, sound, and motion. Also, after a good laugh or some beautiful lovemaking, the body drops into a state of deeper relaxation. Our breathing slows, the body temperature drops, and we’re left with more ease and peace at a biological level.

These are just a few of the benefits of both laughter and sex. And, though we might have to choose our moments for some steamy sexual play, we can laugh just about anywhere. Have a great laugh, have a great life!

In love and light,

Taranga