Researchers prove pleasure helps us reduce our stress levels.
When couples come to relationship counselling they are often experiencing stress and the dysfunction in the relationship might be having both a direct and indirect impact on that stress.
Naturally, being in a difficult situation with your significant other, sometimes not even knowing if the relationship will last, is very stressful.
But quite often the couple has stopped doing some activities that have now been found to help reduce our stress – enjoying a good meal and making love (though not necessarily at the same time!).
Pleasure can help ward off stress.
It has been proven in a U.S. study that pleasurable activity provides more than just pleasure, it reduces stress by inhibiting anxiety responses in the brain.
The University of Cincinnati researchers say pleasurable activities help you feel less stress in the present, and the effects continue for at least seven days.
To determine the results, the researchers provided rats twice daily access to a sugar solution and then tested their physiological and behavioral responses to stress.
Compared with controls, rats with access to sugar exhibited reduced heart rate and stress hormone levels.
They were also more willing to explore an unfamiliar environment and socially interact with other rats.
But it wasn’t just the rats who were enjoying the sweet treats that had reduced stress levels, those who were given access to sexually responsive partners also benefited in the same way.
“These findings give us a clearer understanding of the motivation for consuming ‘comfort food’ during times of stress,” – Yvonne Ulrich-Lai, PhD.
“But it’s important to note that, based on our findings, even small amounts of pleasurable foods can reduce the effects of stress.”
Something for couples to consider.
In relationship counselling you can see that couples, when things get tough, tend to do things that exacerbate their issues (I call it the ‘Unhealthy Zone’).
They perhaps don’t want to be intimate (or just can’t), they stop touching and holding each other, and quality one-on-one time, such as going out for a nice meal together, tends to be shelved, or becomes unproductive.
So, things get difficult, and our natural responses to that challenge then heighten the issue.
Some things for us to consider when trying to get a relationship back on course.
