March 24, 2023

The Many Triggers to Masturbation

Masturbation is a normal and healthy sexual activity that can provide stress relief and other health benefits. However, let’s not forget why people like to masturbate: to feel amazing. But masturbation doesn't always run on a strict schedule. Many of us do not plan out our week with a masturbation session marked on our calendar. Sometimes the right moment comes unexpectedly. We could find ourselves aroused by something quite spontaneous: a random thought, a touch or even an arousing scent. One thing leads to another and we find ourselves wanting to take part in a little self-pleasure.

What kinds of things could stimulate your desire to masturbate? Here, we explore some stimuli that can lead to masturbation. You might even recognize one or more of these situations!

Thoughts Become Things

Home alone and bored? With time on your hands, there could be a million things going through your head and some of them could be leading you to more pleasurable activities. Sometimes thinking can lead to something very stimulating! You may not be physically moving, but your mind is constantly thinking, seeking, and yes, sometimes wanting something pleasurable. That’s why it is assumed that the brain uses about 20% of the body’s energy at all times; it’s always busy. Arousal starts in the mind, before anything physically happening. So let your mind wander. It can be fun to just let go and see where it takes you!

A Touching Moment

Have you ever heard of tactile memory? Tactile memory refers to sensory memory that processes and stores information obtained through touch or physical contact. This type of memory involves the ability to recognize and recall physical sensations, such as textures, temperatures, pressure, and vibrations perceived through the skin and other sensory receptors.

The human mind automatically stores representations of perceived experiences, including haptic stimulation. Have you ever felt a feeling or recalled a memory just from touching something? For example, when you reach into your pocket and search for your keys, how do you know what it is even without looking? How are you able to discern the small change (quarter or dime) in your pocket from the key itself? Or maybe you started digging in your pocket, searching for your keys, and felt the ticket stub from last night's concert you attended, did that trigger feelings of a great night you had? Tactile memory is being used all the time.

Not surprisingly, the sense of touch can be really stimulating. It might not always be something as direct as rubbing the erogenous zones, but a gentle touch to a part of the body may stimulate a memory of something from your past that can lead to something far more physically stimulating.

So why not touch yourself all over? You might find it opens new possibilities of pleasure!

Phenomenal Pheromones or Just Phony?

You may have heard of pheromones and how animals give off certain chemicals to communicate sexual attraction. These chemicals are released through sweat and other bodily secretions.

But does this work similarly on humans to produce sexual stimulation? The jury is still out on whether they are actually effective for men or women, but that hasn’t stopped the perfume industry from making pheromone-based scents in the hopes of attracting your desired partner. But whether they are actually effective or not is still unclear.

Humans do have something called the vomeronasal organ, which is supposed to detect these pheromones. However, it appears that Mother Nature has rendered this organ non-operative in humans and is not even wired to the brain, as opposed to it being an effective method of attracting a mate for animals. So you may want to save your money and think twice about buying a pheromone-based perfume, or at least steer clear of farm animals until you take a shower and wash the scent off!

Independent of pheromones, scents that are familiar to you, or remind you of a certain person, can have a similar effect to the familiarity of a certain touch as discussed previously.

When It Comes to Self-Pleasure

You never know when the moment leading to masturbation will strike. That’s part of the excitement! As we’ve discussed in this article, a stimulated mind can lead to some very stimulating pleasure. Each one of us is very different in what triggers us to feel arousal. It is very interesting to know how many types of triggers we each have.

And when that moment comes, TENGA has a large variety of items to fit nearly every stimulation. Maybe today you will desire a slow and gentle touch, or perhaps tomorrow you might enjoy firm stimulation or even a pleasant vibrational rhythm. Experimenting with different types of masturbation stimulation can be great fun. If you liked this article, we hope you will visit the TENGA and iroha websites and search for something to add to your self-pleasure. We think you’ll find just what you need!