First and foremost we need to understand that sexuality is a natural function of our bodies like eating or sleeping. As such, we need to treat it like any other bodily function with understanding and thought.

Just as our eating and sleeping habits become distorted by the pressures of society, our anxieties, and the lack of sensible control (which can ultimately become obesity or anorexia,) so can sex, this very elemental function, become manipulated and distorted by these same pressures — the values of society, our many anxieties and the lack of sensible control which still continue to shape human sexuality all over the world.

Many of our religions teach us that our body is something to be ashamed of and should be treated with repression and guilt. Many of our societies teach us a disregard for the equality of the sexes and allow us to use and abuse each other for our selfish needs. Often when people are angry or troubled by the stresses of life they use sex as an outlet for their anxiety. This really has nothing to do with their natural drives or love, but becomes a mechanism used as a release from their frustration and anger.

Those who commit domestic abuse, those who use other people without regard, those who are addicted to pornography, those who try to dominate others sexually because of their need for power must begin to look at the source of their behavior much the same way that a person who is out of control when they eat too much or drink too much must recognize that the source of their behavior is unhappiness and anxiety.

Why is it so hard to examine or change our sexual behavior? Our sexual attitudes and behaviors are formed when we are very young before we have the skills or the critical thought to question them. They are formed by our parent’s attitudes, by our society and by our peer groups according to the prevailing thought of the country and the century and the misconceptions in which we happen to be born.

It will take conscious thought and action to understand the real needs of our men women, and children to correct the past misconceptions of previous sexual thought and to ultimately change those many complexities and misconceptions to a better functioning mode that is less stressful, more compassionate and more satisfying for all human beings

Isn’t it time, as the world tries to become more knowledgeable and less self-conscious about understanding the realities of sex, that we also begin to personally examine our own actions and motives and begin to change our sexual behavior, if that becomes necessary, to a more tolerant, caring and ultimately better functioning mode, so that we all can become more balanced and happier individuals? How different our future world will become, if we begin to act with more insight and more wisdom about the enormous complexities of human sexuality.