If you look up the word pleasure in the dictionary, it gives you 3 different alternatives.
It can be a noun, an adjective and a verb.
Wow, it must be important!
Noun – A feeling of happiness and joy or an event or activity from which one derives enjoyment.
Adjective – Enjoyment and/or entertainment, as opposed to necessity.
Verb – To give enjoyment or sexual satisfaction to.
We can have pleasure, do something for pleasure and give and receive pleasure.
How wonderful!
Words like bliss, heavenly, divine, sublime, joyous and euphoric all connote pleasure.
I like to use pleasurable words, like these, a lot.
How often do you actively think about or indulge in your pleasure?
Not enough I’d guess!
Lots of people will only think about pleasure in relation to sex.
Obviously, it can relate to sex and sexual acts (go ahead – orgasms are good for you).
But there are lots of different ways to experience pleasure that don’t involve sex.
Here are a few that spring to mind.
Stroking a beloved pet
Slipping into freshly laundered sheets
Having a relaxing massage
Mindfully savouring your favourite food
Allowing a piece of your favourite chocolate to melt on your tongue
Sipping an exquisite glass of wine or a very cold beer on a hot day
Feeling the sun on your face again after a long winter
Kicking up leaves on a crisp autumn day
Watching someone you Love achieve success
Catching up with an old friend/Loved one/family member who you haven’t seen for a very long time
Having a big bear hug off someone you really like
Smelling the aroma of freshly brewed coffee, freshly baked bread or your favourite fragrance
Hearing a baby giggle
Watching your favourite film under your favourite blanket
Listening to a beautiful song or piece of music
Dancing cheek to cheek with someone you Love
Having a luxurious candle lit bubble bath (with your special bubbles)
Perusing old photographs/memories
Taking a walk while the sun is setting
There are millions of different things that can pleasure your senses in a million different ways.
Basically it’s anything that makes you go Mmmm.
When you experience that Mmmm feeling, I want you to stop and savour it. Don’t let it pass you by.
(Anybody over 40 will remember the Cadburys Flake advert – that’s pleasure)!
We’re all so busy nowadays that we don’t put nearly enough energy into our happiness.
I’ve talked about this in previous blogs.
What if your duty in the world was just to be happy and to feel pleasure and to have an amazingly fulfilled life?
Wouldn’t the world be a better place?
Well I’ve adopted this as my duty.
Why don’t you adopt it too?
First we need to know ourselves and what we enjoy.
Our pleasure is personal; it’s completely unique to us.
What brings you pleasure?
You have my full permission to start experimenting.
Don’t feel inhibited or guilty.
Go for it!
This is not selfish nonsense.
Pleasure counteracts stress.
Stress kills our immune systems.
Pleasure switches us into our parasympathetic nervous system.
Our rest-and-digest response, rather than our fight-or-flight response.
When we’re in rest-and-digest our minds and bodies are happy, they stop aging and start rejuvenating.
This makes our immune systems more vigorous and strong.
Pleasure keeps us healthy!
A large percentage of Lovelies (and some of you Lonelies) will be HSPs – Highly Sensitive People.
HSPs make up 15-20% of the population.
As the name suggests, highly sensitive people are much more sensitive than the remainder of the general population.
They feel things very deeply.
This can be both a blessing and a curse.
A curse because they’ll feel negative emotions/events/criticism very deeply.
They might also be sensitive to too much noise, too much heat, too much cold, too harsh a light, blood, violence, cruelty, injustice etc etc.
They are life’s gentle creatures.
Lovelies, on the whole, will usually be open and transparent about this.
They accept it’s just how they are.
I fall into this category.
Lonelies on the other hand, will probably try to cover this up.
They’ll sweep it under the carpet and ignore/try to overcome it as much as possible.
To be fair, they probably won’t have a clue that they’re an HSP; they’ll just think they have some annoying traits that they’d like to be rid of.
I’d love any HSP Lonelies out there to embrace their sensitivity.
Masculine sensitivity is a wonderful thing.
Be a role model for other men.
Just like vulnerability in last week’s blog, I don’t think this makes you weak at all.
I think it makes you genuine and authentic.
And that’s powerful and strong.
So where does the blessing part come in?
The blessing is, that because you are highly sensitive you have the capacity for great bliss.
You have the joy of being able to feel positive emotions/events/kind words very deeply.
So you can experience deep joy, deep happiness and deep pleasure.
HSPs can be sexual Gods and Goddesses 🙂
I always encourage my HSP clients to max out their pleasure as much as they possibly can.
It balances out all the heavy, negative stuff they have to cope with.
I squeeze every bit of possible pleasure out of everything I do.
And I build some kind of pleasure somewhere into every day.
Every one!
I Love to support the people I care about.
My family, my friends and my clients.
I’m always there to help, support or guide wherever I can…and I give you my all.
I can do this because my self-care and pleasure are such a high priority for me.
My cup is so full; I’m giving you from my overflow.
There’s no resentment, no bitterness and no grumbling under my breath.
I want to support you, because I feel topped up and happy.
If I feel resentful or that you’re taking advantage of me, I’ll say no and/or I’ll pull back.
It’s taken me years to get to this point.
But I thoroughly recommend it.
This Friday (the 9th) is my half-birthday.
My real birthday is in March and although I love being a Pisces, it’s not a great time of the year weather-wise.
So years ago, I started celebrating my half-birthday too, so I could do nice things in the good weather.
I don’t receive presents (some of my friends do send me cards) but I make sure it’s a special day, where I do really nice things.
I also do this on the 9th of all of the other months too, but on a smaller scale.
A meal out, the theatre, a massage.
I organise and pay for this myself. I don’t expect other people to.
It’s an excuse to squeeze some more pleasure and happiness into my life.
We shouldn’t really need excuses, but most of us do.
Why not put some extra energy into your pleasure and happiness and see how your life improves?
It’s a lovely habit to get into.
Have a pleasure-filled week.
Much Love
Christina xx