Pleasure Is. Attend to it.
Guided Pleasure Meditation and Writing the Thing Itself | Creative Expansion Challenge Day 2
Pleasure is. Period.
There is a universe of sensational delights buzzing through each of our systems in each moment; the revelation of its existence happens first, by way of attention. And when paired with a practice of releasing the tension in our bodies (which we’ll do tomorrow) and our willingness to be with what is all the way through the process, layer by layer, breath by breath, moment by moment, we reveal the ocean of pleasure (eros) that always has been, and always will be, living within us.
But if pleasure just is… why can it be so challenging to experience? Why aren’t we all rolling around in the meadows writhing in orgasmic bliss?
Attention is the beginning of devotion — Mary Oliver
It comes down to what we’re focusing on and the stories we’re telling ourselves, which as we learned yesterday, begins with the state of our nervous system. Maybe we’re habitually distracted and scrolling on social media, our attention concentrated from the neck up. Maybe we’re focusing on worries about work or our kids or life in general. Maybe we constantly tell ourselves there’s no time to relax and enjoy ourselves. Maybe we have health concerns or injuries that hijack our attention. Maybe we’ve historically experienced great pain and fear that in opening our senses back up we’ll relive the experience. Maybe we’ve never experienced a truly supportive relationship with our body.
I’ve been there, in all of those places, and I can tell you this: whatever it is we’re telling ourselves, we’ll keep repeating that story until we let ourselves have a different lived experience. For as Michael de Montaigne observed, “He who fears he shall suffer, already suffers what he fears.”
In our context, that means our awareness can become so wound around the fear that we won’t experience pleasure, that we don’t even let ourselves open to the possibility, thereby ensuring the very thing we are afraid of comes true.
The trickiest thing about this particular paradox is that the thought is often silent, embedded (aka embodied) deep within our systems, expertly executed by our actions and avoidances.
Intentionally focusing on and offering ourselves pleasure is a radical act of self love, and nourishing beyond words. So, that’s what we’re going to practice today.
First, I’ll guide you through a short pleasure meditation to awaken sensation in your body and help you shift your attention to what feels good in the present moment. This, alone, is a life-changing practice.
Then, when your body is rich with awareness, you’ll have the option to do a 5-minute observational writing practice.
