Mindfulness meditation training improved women's ability to quickly register their own physiological responses to sexual stimuli, a skill known as interoceptive awareness. Women who completed a 12-week meditation course also showed better attention, less self-judgment, and reduced symptoms of anxiety and depression compared to an active control group. These improvements in interoceptive awareness were linked to reductions in psychological barriers that can interfere with healthy sexual functioning, suggesting mindfulness training may be a promising approach for treating female sexual dysfunction.
The classical Daoist textual corpus, often interpreted as abstract philosophy, actually emerged from a tradition centered on specific meditative techniques and goals. These practices included proper posture, breath cultivation, focused attention, and apophatic training to restrict desires, emotions, thoughts, and perceptions, aiming to reveal a deeper reality called the Way. Over time, these self-cultivation methods were seen as beneficial for rulership, connecting the ruler to a correlative web of cosmic energies.