Ever had one of those days as a vagina owner where you wake up and something feels off? Maybe you’re slightly itchy down there, maybe your skin is irritated, or maybe it burns a bit when you urinate. Maybe you even notice a weird discharge. It happens to most of us. In fact, up to 75% of women will experience some form of vaginitis, or vaginal inflammation, at some point of their lives. Vaginitis can have many different causes, and some forms are more serious than others.

When most people teach about safe sex, they are often focusing on preventing infection and promoting birth control. Yet, there is another, overlooked aspect of safety in sex that can have as far reaching an impact as any physical one – that is the importance of developing an emotional safety net to protect your evolving erotic self. 

This month marks the 25th anniversary of National Masturbation Month, launched in 1995 by Good Vibrations to protest the firing of the U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders, appointed by President Clinton. Dr. Elders was fired for responding to questions regarding safe sex by saying that “Masturbation is something that perhaps should be taught.” Conservative members of the administration were not pleased.

Love is an inside job. Learning to love ourselves is where it all begins. And yet, most of us are plagued with some nagging doubts of unworthiness. It’s almost as though there is some deep ancestral pattern that equates emotional pain to some inherent core deficiency, built into our genetic code. It is how we abandon ourselves. 

We are in a state of worldwide rest. Nearly four billion people, or half of the world’s population, are on some sort of stay-at-home order. In this unprecedented time – as we bear witness to what most of us thought impossible – we have a chance to really learn what rest can offer us. Even as the anxiety of world markets accelerates and the weight of our collective capacity to weather the economic ravages of this pause weighs heavily, we all remain suspended in a springtime slowdown.

After nine months of waiting, your baby is finally here. You’re probably feeling a lot of different things – overjoyed, freaked out, and everything in between. On one hand, you made a person! On the other hand, your postpartum body may feel unfamiliar. You’re probably tired and still in some pain. And if you had a vaginal birth? Well, your vagina may look and feel like a stranger.

At Good Clean Love, we are big fans of the heart. It's literally the core of our body and life being and, in a more figurative sense, it's the pathway to love and our connections with everyone in our lives. We wouldn't be who we are without it. 

It has taken me a long time to understand that rest is not the opposite of effort. Rather, it is its source – the literal energetic nourishment necessary for all that we aspire to accomplish. As a life-long doer, resting has never come easily to me. 

Consider this my personal invitation to re-invent the idea of gift giving. Instead of all the hours you would spend in seeking, purchasing, wrapping, and giving gifts, use it to offer your presence.