Dr. Nicole McNichols

And the reality is that sex is something that needs to be prioritized.

We understand the effects of exercise or the benefits of nutrition, but most of us don't really have an awareness of the basic benefits of sex.

For example, we know that sex, when it's satisfying and consensual and connected, it leads to increased physical health, right?

It leads to increased cardiovascular health.

It protects the brain against degenerative diseases.

There are even some studies that it predicts longevity.

So sex is something that truly is important, but even more than that, it builds ego resilience.

And what I mean by that is when you prioritize pleasure, when it becomes something that you spend time cultivating in your life,

You experience this upward cycle where you gain this ego resilience.

It fills your bucket, so to speak.

It causes you to have a broadening effect.

You turn outwards.

You seek more sources of social support.

It allows you to think more creatively, even at a basic cognitive level.

The data shows that when we experience pleasure, we're able to think more creatively and abstractly.

And so we tend to think that pleasure is superfluous, but the reality is we need pleasure in our lives to be able to even just accomplish all of these things that we want to, to live the lives that we want to live.

And beyond that, at a more concrete level, if we're looking at relationships specifically,

We also have long-term studies looking at couples.

And what we find is that, yes, as most people know, sexual satisfaction and relationship satisfaction are highly correlated.

But it's not the case that just improving your relationship or having high levels of relationship satisfaction are going to naturally lead to a better sex life.