Best Sex Ed Books for Your Reading List This Season
One of the earliest depictions of intimacy in art can be seen in “The Lovers”, a cave painting made in the Bronze Ages, circa 1000 B.C.. It shows two stick figures facing each other, holding hands. However, a lesser-known fact about this creation is that there looms an intimidating figure just next to our romantic couple, clutching a hammer bigger than its own head, posed to attack.
What could it possibly mean?
Endless emotions can be linked to intimacy, even those that are vaguely (if not outright!) threatening. An attempt to untangle each feeling and analyse it might be like attempting to untangle a ball of yarn that spans across several lifetimes, however, it might just be worth it, as self-reflection plays a crucial role in understanding ourselves.
And hey, who doesn’t love hand-knit sweaters made with love and patience?
So yes, learning from negative experiences, and embracing positive ones, can help us enhance our relationships and build deeper bonds.
Editor's Pick
Unashamed: Notes From the Diary of a Sex Therapist
Written by Neha Bhat @indiansextherapist on Instagram, the author herself is a sex therapist who specialises in trauma, thus providing unique and necessary perspectives in a conversational tone.
Sexual shame (see more) is an emotion that is inevitable in the Indian context. Unashamed primarily deals with this complex, yet widely under-discussed emotion. “Why do I crave physical touch, although it leaves me with a deep sense of embarrassment?” “How do I tell my family am gay without putting myself down?” “How can I heal from my sexual trauma that has left me fearful of intimacy?” These are just some of the questions that this book tries to answer from the author’s perspective as a practising sex therapist. Several anecdotes and personal consultation experiences make it a breeze to read, also filled with occasional journaling prompts and activities, making it feel like a real therapy session. members that I
The book begins with a few resonant words, and goals to keep in mind while reading –
- To become more emotionally aware
- To experience deeper connection in your relationships
- To feel less alone in life experiences
- To create your inner work practices
Convinced yet? We’ve gone through the book, and it’s sure to get you checking all these boxes. Check it out here.
Other Books We Loved Reading
8 Rules of Love: How to Find It, Keep It, and Let It Go
Written by renowned author Jay Shetty, this book deals with the age-old emotion of love and decodes the various faces of it.
“Alone, we learn to love ourselves, to understand ourselves, to heal our own pain, and to care for ourselves.”
All About Love: New Visions
Written by an author who was officially declared as one of the “100 Visionaries Who Can Change Your Life”, this book dives into the intricacies of what it means to give and receive love.
She also talks about how love — an emotion taught to us in every movie, story, and song ever — and loss — an emotion we fear as easily as love — are inextricably linked to each other.
“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”
The Course of Love
Alain de Botton is a Swiss-born British author and public speaker whose works discuss various contemporary subjects and themes, emphasising philosophy’s relevance to everyday life.
The Course of Love is a fiction novel in which our main characters, Rabih and Kirsten, fall in love. It further dives into what happens after the birth of love, what it takes to maintain love, and what happens to our original ideals under the pressures of an average existence.
“The only people who can still strike us as normal are those we don’t yet know very well. The best cure for love [in the movie or film sense] is to get to know them better.”
Conclusion
While human emotions have been in a perpetual state of “it’s complicated” since time immemorial, it’s worth noting that we have an entire lifetime to learn about them. Get reading these insightful books and let us know your thoughts in the comments!
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