Mindfulness, Meditation, and BDSM
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We came across a fascinating article on BDSM, meditation, and mindfulness, so we decided to talk about it!
In this episode:
- Cara Dunkley, a clinical psychologist from the Sexual Health Laboratory at the University of British Columbia – studied BDSM and mindfulness: the group that practiced BDSM scored higher on most traits associated with everyday mindfulness
- Mindfulness is comprised of about five skills: observing, describing, acting with awareness, non-judgment, and non-reactivity to your inner experience.
- Bottoms must be very aware of their own internal experiences and emotional states in their moment-to-moment response during a BDSM activity, and to physical sensations, because they need to differentiate between safe pain and pain that could be indicative of real harm,” said Dunkley. “Similarly, Tops must be externally attentive to the emotional and physical responses of the Bottom through very controlled focus, and consciously adjusting their actions accordingly to keep it pleasurable.”
- Subspace: not that different from what spirituality meditators experience
- Topspace: “flow state” or “in the zone” as athletes tend to call it
- Meditative aspect of BDSM similar to helping people deal with chronic pain: developing the skill of noticing, accepting, then letting go of the negative emotions we typically associate with pain.
- BDSM can give Bottoms a temporary relief from the stresses of selfhood. Descriptions of it sound like just a wonderful escape from, you know, the kind of higher-level processing that we do all the time as people
- Tops require being fully present in the moment
Thanks to our patrons: Mr. Spock, Teishu, wildkitten306, Jenn C., HisSweet, Captain Vanilla
Links from the episode:
Article on BDSM and mindfulness
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