How did I evolve through that balance and come into the place where I am today, where my sexual boundaries have shifted dramatically? I'm up for trying things just to see what they're like; I routinely have fantasies that would have appalled me in my teens; and I routinely have orgasms as well.... But why is it that, for example, I'm very interested in having multiple partners now, but wasn't at all interested a few years ago? Why did I initially swear I'd never wear a collar, then end up associating collars with profound sexual love? How is it that I initially considered myself solely a submissive but later transitioned into an enthusiastic switch (1.e., both a sub and a domme)? Here are the two factors that, I think, facilitate sexual evolution and openness: 1) A pressure-free environment This is key! A person can be pressured into sexual exploration, but in my experience it won't "take." Many people (though not all) who feel pressure react by becoming defensive and unwilling to change; even if they do try the experiment, they're less likely to enjoy it. And someone who has a bad sexual experience will often have trouble enjoying that kind of sex in the future. Take me, for example -- there were a lot of reasons why I felt less willing to experiment with polyamory (multiple relationships) when I was 20, but one of the big ones is that I felt lots of pressure to be poly. Because I ran in highly "alternative" social circles, I was meeting "polyvangelists" who argued that polyamory is the "best" kind of relationship and that anyone who doesn't want to try poly is just being selfish or close-minded. General social pressure exerts an influence, so it helps to have open-minded friends who accept different forms of consensual sexuality -- which doesn't just mean that "vanilla" people would do well to accept those of us who are "non-standard," but also means that even people in "alternative" circles have to accept "mainstream" sexuality. But in my experience, the actual