Are you feeling disconnected and uninspired when it comes to sex with your partner? Claudia Blake, author of The Joy of Mindful Sex, explains how mindfulness can be successfully applied to your sex life and ultimately blow both of your minds.

Q: What is mindful sex?

A: Mindfulness is an attitude of peaceful awareness. Rather than drifting along absently or being distracted by a thousand worries, we focus our attention on our environment and our own bodies. It's the foundation of most meditations, but it's not exclusively religious: instead, it's a way of being present in oneself that makes for a calmer and more vivid experience that can make anyone feel more healthy and steady. It's very simple, very commonsensical at its root and at the same time very powerful. Mindful sex is nothing more complicated than taking that age-old practice and applying it to one's lovemaking.

Q: How can being mindful make sex better?

It's no secret that many women have a dysfunctional relationship with food and often turn to eating to deal with emotional issues. Psychologist Dr. Susan Albers has a new book coming out this month on the subject: 50 Ways to Soothe Yourself Without Food. Here, she discusses mindful eating and offers lots of tips for being a healthier, more mindful eater.

Q: What is mindful eating?

A: Mindful eating is a not a diet. There are no menus or recipes. It is simply about being more aware of what you eat. Eating is such a routine behavior that you can eat an entire plate of food and not taste one bite. You can also fall into repetitive mindless eating habits (eating a snack at the same time each day, stress eating at work etc). When you are eating mindfully, you enjoy your food, savor it and also feel more in control. It's the polar opposite of binging.

Q: Why is it important and how can it help?

A: Mindful eating is important because it is a long-term approach to eating (versus dieting which is short term). Mindful eating is realistic. It doesn't cut out any foods from your diet.

When you slow down, you think more clearly. You are less reactive. Being mindful helps you be more aware of how you unconsciously and consciously react to food and find new ways to deal with the situation without leaning on eating.

Overall, your weight impacts your mental and physical health. It's a chicken and egg effect. Unhealthy eating habits lead you to feel depressed and when you are depressed you don't eat well. People who manage their diet well are physically and mentally healthier.

My mother had my brother and I in her early twenties, but I didn't even start thinking about having kids until I entered my thirties. The reality is that women are having children older so the question of preserving fertility is something very much on our minds.

I spoke to infertility specialist, Dr.Cliff Librach about steps women can take to prolong their childbearing years.

Q: What can women do to improve their fertility?

A: Certainly, there are things that can prevent your infertility. The first thing is even when you're not trying to have a baby and you have multiple partners, it's very important to use barrier contraception. That way you can avoid sexually transmitted diseases that can affect your fertility in a profound way by blocking your tubes

One of the primary values of meditation is to reduce stress, and when one of both members of a couple is stressed out it can lead to poor communication and unnecessary friction. Mindfulness meditation, which teaches students to focus on the present and let go of regrets from the past and anxieties about the future, uses breathing techniques to let go of thoughts so you don't make assumptions and create a spiral of negative narratives. (For example, "He didn't kiss me before he left for work" can become "He's having an affair," but it might actually just mean that he's worried about a morning meeting.)

Read more on how mindfulness can help your relationship.

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