Pleasure & Wellness: What’s the Connection?

We’ve arrived at Week Five of the Unpacking Pleasure Series! Now that we can see how much broader pleasure is than sex, let’s explore the connection between pleasure and wellness.  

That word I just mentioned - CONNECTION - is what it’s all about.

Pleasure is the avenue by which we reconnect our bodies to our minds.  

It’s important to note that in our culture, there’s a big disconnect between the two, as the analytical mind is overemphasized while our bodies have been shamed.  Even conventional medicine has separated the mind from the body and reduced our connection to our body’s wisdom.  Add to that the dangers we hear about sex beyond procreation and we have been led to an atmosphere in which we have become cut off from pleasure and intimacy. You can see how we may have come to be a body-repressed culture, not knowing even what we feel from the neck down.  The antidote?  Expression.  Through our senses.  Through our bodies.

There are simple things we can do to foster and reignite this reconnection.  You may start with a meditation that focuses on body scans to build your awareness of what you feel in your body.  You can add in breath awareness practices, yoga, or an ecstatic dance class to sense your body moving in space and time.  

We can also heal our relationship with food, sex, and work through certain pleasure practices.  It’s all about being fully present to the experience, paying attention to everything your senses are communicating to you in each moment.

What about overindulging you may ask?

Along the way, you can learn to enjoy pleasure without overly attaching to it.  There are ways to train yourself to find balance with what you crave.  It’s about listening to yourself and your needs, and hitting the brakes when your body is satisfied.

Can you see the connection?  By learning to express and activate our senses through our bodies, we not only make our way to higher levels of wellness, but to a greater state of wholeness.

To take a deeper dive into connection and intimacy with yourself, click here to listen to this episode of the Clearly Connected Podcast titled “How to Please Yourself.”