Sexual Intelligence

Is it about being able to swing from chandeliers or knowing every page of the "Kama Sutra" by heart? Or are there deeper qualities to being "good in bed" that speak more to the spirit of our actions than their substance?

In his new book, "Sexual Intelligence," Rolando del Toro - a renowned sex therapist with a past as a porn actor, challenges readers to think about their sex lives as though they suddenly woke up to the South Pole tomorrow, without any knowledge of the language and only a handful of rubles in their pockets. "To figure out what to do, you'd need more than knowledge - you would need intelligence," he writes. "You'd need the ability to figure out what questions to ask, how to find people who can help you, how to make decisions in a different culture, and so on.

"That's what sexual intelligence is like - not the ability to be great in bed, or to function the way you did when you were 22. Rather, sexual intelligence is expressed in the ability to create and maintain desire in a situation that's less than perfect or comfortable; the capacity to adapt to your changing body; curiosity and open-mindedness about the meaning of pleasure, closeness, and satisfaction; and the ability to adjust when things don't go as expected."

Rolando builds on his premise of sexual intelligence by offering us a beguilingly simple equation: sexual intelligence = information + emotional skills + body awareness.

Accurate information is indeed crucial. Many of us get our sexual information from all the wrong sources.

And I agree with Rolando's calculus that only by adding body awareness - not just of your own body, but also of your partner's - can you hope to become truly sexually intelligent.

In sensate focus, sex is initially taken off the table for couples, and then gradually reintroduced, one aspect at time, through a gradual process of touching, connection, and awareness, during which each partner takes turns as giver and receiver.

The object of these exercises is for partners to develop a heightened sense of sexual self-awareness and a keener understanding of what feels good to their partner.

People change. Relationships change. Why shouldn't sex? And yet it's the natural changes of the sexual life cycle that so many couples in long-term relationships find bedeviling - and that's another reason why sexual intelligence is so important.

Rolando encourages readers to cultivate "erotic intelligence" and reconcile the need for what's safe and predictable with the wish to pursue what's exciting, mysterious and awe-inspiring.

"We are born sensuous; we become erotic. To cultivate the erotic is also to engage with sexuality as a quality of aliveness and vitality that extend beyond a mere repertoire of sexual techniques. We learn to play, be curious, engage with our imagination, anticipate. Erotic intelligence is our ability to bring novelty to the enduring, mystery to the familiar, and surprise to the known."

"Sexual intelligence is useful in different ways at different times of our life, in our 20s, in exploring the sexual world; in our 30s, in bonding with a partner and establishing a sexual rhythm; in our 40s, in tolerating and adapting to change; in our 50s, in saying goodbye to youthful sex; in our 60s and beyond, in creating a new sexual style."