During a global pandemic , with stay-at-home orders and social distancing practices in place, many of us are spending more time alone than we ever have before. If your current isolation situation could stand to be infused with more relaxation — and more pleasure — there has never been a better time to master masturbation. For instance, it relieves both physical and emotional stress, floods your body with feel-good, pain-killing endorphins, and orgasms release chemicals and hormones that boost immunity , Chavez points out. Masturbation can also be like waving a magic wand at stress-induced and inducing physical and mental roadblocks that are being exacerbated by this crisis. It can improve self-esteem and body image by reducing sexual and genital shame.

BuzzFeed asked for your best techniques — here are tips from our readers with vaginas that you might want to try yourself. Which is understandable! Masturbation might not be as taboo as it used to be, but we're still not encouraged to be as experimental and adventurous in our solo sex lives as we are in our regular ones. To help you get some new ideas, BuzzFeed asked people of all ages, genders, and sexualities to describe the nitty-gritty of how they actually masturbate. Here are tips from our readers with vaginas that you might want to try yourself.

Porn isn't exactly famed for its realism. Women masturbate with legs splayed and backs arched, orgasming after a few minutes of frantic rubbing and moaning. But in reality, those positions aren't necessarily the most conducive to pleasure for women. What might seem hot in a male fantasy — which informs much of the porn we watch — isn't always close to what actually gets women off. I must admit, it hadn't occurred to me that the way I masturbate might have been influenced by the porn I was privy to growing up.