It’s World Mental Health Week so GLAMOUR is using the week ahead to bring you a range of tools and resources you may find helpful. From 5-step methods on feeling ‘unanxious’ and wellness plans to boost your mood to tips for combatting depression and real-life mental health accounts from our team, busting the stigma around mental health is more important than ever.
Of course, you should always speak to your GP about treatment for your mental health but if you’re looking for day-to-day ways to manage any feelings of anxiety and generally boost your self-care, we hope to bring you useful advice.
Surprisingly, one of the easiest ways to boost your self-care and wellness is via masturbation. According to experts, there’s so many benefits of masturbation; it’s great for reducing stress, boosting sleep and helping people focus on the present. Brands like audio sex app Ferly, a digital space for women to explore what pleasure means to them, even views sexual wellbeing as the third pillar of our health, along with physical and mental – and we are seriously here for that.
We’ve seen activism such as The Pink Protest’s #GirlsWankToo campaign, feminist porn sites such as Lust Cinema and Indie Porn Revolution, and a whole month dedicated to masturbation (which happens to be May), so whether it’s aiding your mental health or giving you that confident glow, this shifting view of masturbation shows it’s a wellness pillar we need to stop being ashamed of – and start owning.
We’ve already written about edging – a mindful masturbation technique that involves building yourself up to come, and then having a rest before starting again – which went down a storm. So now we bring you another mindful masturbation technique to try: framing.
Framing is a combo of mindfulness and masturbation and the focus is on how reaching an orgasm is something that has more to do with the brain than the body. The brain is a pretty powerful tool in masturbation and the idea is to switch off the porn and distracting thoughts and instead use your mind and imagination to get yourself going.
The idea is to visualise a sexy scenario and take your mind off the physical act of touching yourself. How you think about your orgasm (or “frame” it) can apparently have a drastic effect on your pleasure. The easiest way to get yourself in the zone? Via short erotic audio stories.
From guided masturbation tutorials to hot original stories, there’s bound to be something out there that will turn you on. Check out these apps and sites to get started.