It may sound odd but it is a resounding yes, sex can boost your business success. Sexual desire is among the most powerful of human desires. With this intense drive energizing us, everyone can ride that wave and use your body’s neurochemical reactions to manifest incredible qualities and states of mind. These include enhanced visualization, clarity, creativity, imagination, courage, motivation, and willpower, and the ability to persist despite all obstacles and difficulties.
Our sexual energy is so formidable that some say it is the source behind almost all creative achievements considered “genius.” Sex has the potential to increase your inventiveness capability and creative verve to the point where you are unstoppable. Plus, so much more! How you ask? Let’s explore how sex can be used to improve your business and career.
The Health Benefits of Sex
Besides reproduction, sex is essential and is intrinsically linked to intimacy, pleasure, and/or sexual expression. Sex (in its many forms) has many positive intellectual, physical, emotional, and social benefits. Physically, an active sex life provides many benefits, including a youthful appearance and a healthy lifestyle. Not only does sex burn calories, but according to a study by Dr. Carl Charnetski at Wilkes University, IgA combats disease and keeps the body safe from colds and flu. Sex can help you sleep better, which creates a more robust immune system. Oxytocin released during orgasm promotes restful sleep, decreases heart problems in both women and men, and helps with pain control.
For women, increased sexual activity leads to experiencing lighter periods with fewer cramps and makes their period finish faster. It lowers blood pressure, improves bladder control, and is connected to a reduction in prostate cancer for men and protection from endometriosis for women. Sex rejuvenates, makes us less prone to illnesses, reduces the risk of stroke, and fights the aging process too! And ladies, having orgasms will give you the perfect anti-aging method no lab could ever produce, bottle, or sell! HELLO! A hormone called DHEA is produced during sex, helping with various things, including your skin.
The Neuroscience of Sex
What people do not realize, is that sex does even more! Because sex releases kick-ass neurochemicals and increases blood flow to the brain, which means that you will be more alert. If you have a lot of work to accomplish or projects to complete, having sex beforehand, thinking about sex, crushing on someone, or watching porn, could help you. There is some evidence that shows people who often think about sex have better critical thinking skills. As athletes use visualization to win, can sexual fantasies serve a similar function?
There are loads of data out there to show that sex is good for us, but it’s also good for business. Sabrina Bachai, in her 2015 article in the Medical Daily, The Top 10 Reasons Why Sex Is Good For You, shows that the neurochemicals produced by sex and like activities make us more productive and maybe even smarter! Some researchers also postulate that sexual activity is associated with better cognitive abilities in older adults (Padoani et al., 2000; Wright and Jenna, 2016; Wright et al., 2017). Maybe that means there is a correlation between sexual activity and healthy brain cell growth.
For centuries, people thought love and emotions came from the heart. In reality, love is all about the brain – which produces chemicals that can make your body go wild. Which is delightful! According to a team of scientists led by Dr. Helen Fisher at Rutgers, romantic love can be broken down into lust, attraction, and attachment. Each type is characterized by its own set of hormones; testosterone and estrogen drive lust; dopamine, norepinephrine, and serotonin create attraction; and oxytocin and vasopressin mediate attachment.
Dopamine is of particular importance in the brain’s reward pathway. It is released when we do things that feel good to us, such as, but not limited to, spending time with loved ones, and guess what? Having sex. The brain releases high levels of norepinephrine (aka adrenaline) and dopamine during attraction.
These pleasant neurochemicals make us kooky, slaphappy, exhilarated, and euphoric – you know, the idea that you are so “in love” you cannot eat and can’t sleep. Norepinephrine, which is related to the “fight or flight” response, kicks into high gear when we are stressed and keeps us alert. In the attraction stage, dopamine is stimulated by the “chase” aspect of love.
Interestingly, low serotonin levels are what underlie the overpowering infatuation that characterizes the beginning stages of love. The original survival instinct, of having as many offspring as possible, is no longer in strong effect. Still, when we receive the affection of a desirable individual, loads of serotonin are generated. And when we are on the receiving end of admiration, that pumps serotonin too. It feels so good that people tend to seek it repeatedly.
Desirability is part of what drives flirting in business/workplace, and this is how flirting can lead to co-workers or professionals engaging in sexual relationships and affairs, or the downside of infidelity and sexual harassment, when not utilized in a mature way. The power lies in controlling and channeling that. You can ride that energy and feed off it to accelerate your business and projects, and feel super high about life.
Interestingly and relevant here is that lust and attraction partly shut off the brain’s prefrontal cortex. This sounds bad but it is actually good. Because it is this “rational” thinking that sometimes prevents us from taking risks. If we always listened to this, we would not jump off diving boards, skydive, or take on a new job / quit a job to start a new business.
This state of mind that lust and attraction invoke is where we can access altered states of consciousness. But it does require a mature, skilled, and intentional response. We have all had our fair share of irrational behavior when it comes to these love chemicals. However, with awareness and intent, we can take all the best sides and avoid the pitfalls.
It is understandable that there can be an inclination to let it all go and fall deep into the ocean of incredible emotions. There is a time and a place for that. This is the usual pathway toward dating. But this pathway is not mandatory, necessary, or practical for all intents and purposes. Now prepare yourself for a shocking statement; this is a missed opportunity for everyone, but women in particular. Drenched in chemicals that bestow focus, stamina, and vigor, and are driven by the brain’s motivating engine, why not use this to leverage our power and career?
It is time to stop denying sexuality and embrace the chemistry. We can activate it when we want, it is free and it is healthy. We can take this focus and energy and channel it into our business, projects, or anything we are working on professionally or personally. You will be firing on all pistons, and you will write that brilliant report, creativity will be abundant, and you will be immensely productive.
When you are continuously harnessing your sexual energy, it lasts. It is not that you must have intercourse and then quickly run to the meeting before the feeling goes away. In fact, you do not need to have intercourse at all; all the other parts of lusting, attraction, and flirting are enough to trigger the state of mind.
While attraction and lust are mostly a domain exclusive to romantic encounters, some neurochemicals also facilitate attachment, strengthening friendships, social cohesion, and many other intimacies. Business is all about relationships but does not necessarily need to involve flirting and crushing. We certainly should be aware of the benefits of the chemicals that can form outstanding bonds and friendships in business. According to Bob Burg, “People do business with those they know and those they trust.” So, find whatever bonding mechanism works for you.
Our left and right brain functions differently. Our brain’s left side is very mechanical and highly task-oriented, strategic, mathematical, and thought to be linear. The left is where a neurotransmitter called dopamine originates and where our motivation derives. When we feel great because we have accomplished something, a micro-goal perhaps, or someone likes our post on Instagram, that is a dopamine hit. We are likely to repeat these behaviors because they feel good. When we are highly motivated, we can stay engaged, passionate, and on task. What is super cool, too, we can increase and stimulate our dopamine.
Try music! Studies show that listening to our favorite music has a similar effect on our brains as other pleasure-inducing activities like having sex! The right side of our brain tends to be more sensual. It is more creative. It is emotional. It is passion. This is where serotonin originates, our happiness hormone.
The Flow State – Altered State of Consciousness
Have you ever felt so immersed in an activity or project that you kind of lost track of time and were super productive? Some athletes refer to that state as “runners high”. You may be experiencing the delightful and productive mental state that psychologists refer to as the Flow State. When you are truly living in the moment, entirely absorbed in the present activity, time flies, and you do not notice.
According to positive psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi, that state is one of experiencing flow, a state of mind of deep immersion. The ego falls away, that negative talking voice in your head quiets and time flies. Every action, movement, thought, activity, and decision flow without resistance, without doubt, using your brain and your skills 10x.
Flow is experienced in different ways by different people. You might experience flow while engaging in sports; many extreme sports athletes tap into this state of mind to achieve the absolutely incredible and record-breaking results they do. The activity itself is not the ultimate determinator, but the engagement, deep immersion, and focus. Guess what? Sex is a flow trigger.
According to Csíkszentmihályi, several factors trigger the experience of flow. You do not need all of them at once, but as many as possible to get the best effect:
- Clear goals that are challenging but achievable
- The intense concentration and focused attention
- An intrinsically rewarding activity
- Knowing that the task is feasible, but still hard, a balance between skill level and the challenge. You will experience feelings of serenity; a loss of feelings of self-consciousness
- You will experience timelessness; a distorted sense of time; feeling so focused on the present that you lose track of time passing
- You are somehow getting immediate feedback (think about moaning or dirty talk during sex, for example)
- You will experience feelings of personal control over the situation and the outcome
- You will experience a lack of awareness of physical needs
- You will experience a complete focus on the activity itself
How to Achieve Flow
So what can you do to increase your chances of achieving flow? In his book Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, Csíkszentmihályi explains that flow is likely to occur when someone faces a task with clear goals that require specific responses.
To help induce a state of flow:
- You have a specific goal and plan of action.
- It is an activity that you enjoy or passionate about
- There is an element of challenge.
- You can stretch your current skill level.
“Flow also happens when a person’s skills are fully involved in overcoming a challenge that is just about manageable, so it acts as a magnet for learning new skills and increasing challenges,” Csíkszentmihályi explains. “If challenges are too low, one gets back to flow by increasing them. If challenges are too great, one can return to the flow state by learning new skills.“
There are practical applications of a flow state, most relevant here is in business and the workplace. One of his critical concepts is his theory is related to slightly extending oneself beyond one’s current ability level. This slight stretching of one’s existing skills can help the individual experience flow. You are punching above your weight, challenging yourself, pushing into areas that are a bit uncomfortable. This means you can take your sex life to the next level.
The flow state has many advantages, such as improved performance, accelerated learning, rapidly increasing the mastery of a particular skill, and enhanced creativity. And guess what? Engaging in sex, crushing, and flirting, with all its accompanying neurochemicals, can induce a flow state. Adam Safron, a neuroscientist at Northwestern University, reviewed related studies and literature.
In his article Getting into the flow: Sexual pleasure is a kind of trance, he writes “The idea that sexual experiences can be like trance states is, in some ways, ancient. It turns out modern understandings of neuroscience support this idea. […] In theory, this could change the way people view their sexuality. Sex is a source of pleasurable sensations and emotional connection, but beyond that, it’s an altered state of consciousness.”
When we better understand how the brain works and what motivates our behaviors, and how to channel that to our benefit, we can be monumentally more successful in our business, career, and many other endeavors. Sex and its related activities are the key.
