Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
But Drew, I do think there's value in learning about them, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
First of all, the reality is that being in a consensually non-monogamous relationship today
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
is about as common as people who own a cat.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
So it is, there are a lot of people out there who you may not know that they're in open relationships or consensually non-monogamous relationships, but they are.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
And here's the thing, we don't have to say to ourselves, okay, in order to be a happy person, this means I need to go be in an ethically non-monogamous relationship, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
I absolutely don't want that to be the message.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
But learning about ethical non-monogamy
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
it can teach you about some of the inherent challenges to monogamy.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
Because we aren't taught how to do monogamy right when we're growing up.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
We don't get that education.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
We don't learn about the fact that if you look at anthropological evidence,
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
we did not grow up in these tribes as hunter-gatherers who were in these long-term monogamous relationships for 50, 60, 70 years, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
And so that doesn't mean that you can't have an incredibly fulfilling
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
sexually connected marriage for that long, I certainly hope to, but it means that you're up against certain challenges, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
Like specifically, a lot of people come to me confessing, oh my God, what happens if I feel attraction to someone outside of my marriage?
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
What happens if I have a sexual fantasy about someone who I'm not married to, right?
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
That's human, that fantasy, that's what's going on in your head.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
That's just part of what leads our desires to be able to ignite us.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
And those fantasies are okay.
Dhru Purohit Show
7 Wildly Underrated Benefits of Sex and Pleasure: From Cognitive Health to Confidence with Dr. Nicole McNichols
Now, what you do with those fantasies in terms of coming to your partner,