Are you starved for pleasure?

I love summer - the longer days, bright sunshine, time at the beach, more time outdoors, and even when you’re home there’s a feeling of being on vacation.

Can you relate?

As you enjoy these final weeks of summer, it’s a great opportunity to think about how much pleasure you’re experiencing on a daily basis.

Why is this important? 

Because pleasure is a requirement for vibrant health.

Pleasure is an antidote to stress.

We know pleasure is important because the body is designed for pleasure - when you look at the anatomy of your body, and particularly your brain, you can see that it’s set up to experience pleasure.  

The very “pleasure receptors” in our brains are set up in such a way that they can continue to increase in number - this translates to you having the capacity to experience pleasure in an ever-increasing way.

But only if you choose to increase this capacity.

And how do you do this?

By experiencing more pleasure on a daily basis.

The problem is, many women are not experiencing pleasure on a daily basis.

Is this you?

Do you wait for evenings, weekends, vacation, or some special occasion to enjoy, let loose, have fun, indulge?

I see this so often in the women I work with - becoming masters at compartmentalizing their pleasure to the designated times and occasions where they’ve decided it’s appropriate or, even worse, that they’ve earned it.

I’m not suggesting that you give up your work ethic, your discipline, and your ability to get things done in the name of lounging in the sun drinking adult beverages and eating bon bons all day - well, at least not entirely. :-) 

What I am suggesting is that when you compartmentalize your pleasure too much, it can lead to being Pleasure-Starved - starved for pleasure.

This can show up as over-indulging when the time is “right”.

You may find yourself coming home at the end of a busy day, eating too much, pouring yourself one too many glasses of wine without even really enjoying it, staying up too late watching tv or mindlessly surfing Facebook or the latest sale at your favorite online retailer.

You wind up feeling overstuffed, foggy, tired, bloated, buying things you don’t really want or need, and working harder to “keep up with the Joneses” after seeing how perfect all your friends’ lives appear on social media.

On paper, it seems really obvious that these habits aren’t serving you - but your inner dialogue at the time can be SOOOO convincing…

“I deserve it - I’ve had such a stressful day - this tastes so good - I need to wind down - I need to do something just for me - it’s fine - I’ll make up for it tomorrow…”

And then, of course, you have me telling you that it’s imperative to experience more pleasure…so that means more food, more wine, more tv, more online shopping, more social media - right?

Wrong.

More pleasure isn’t about over-indulging on things that end up taking you further from feeling amazing.

It’s about finding more pleasure in your day-to-day, letting go of compartmentalizing, and increasing your sources of daily pleasure so you’re not relying on the typical go-to’s that can end up leaving you feeling less than your best.

How do you do this? 

The first step is AWARENESS.

Get really curious about your day-to-day, and notice where you are already experiencing pleasure or not.

Get clear on your current sources of pleasure - is it pretty limited, or do you have a vast number of activities and experiences that you can choose from to have fun and experience pleasure?

Then get curious about how you can bring more pleasure into your day-to-day, without having to quit your job, leave your family, and run away to a tropical island where you can live on the beach and toss your cares (and your life!) to the wind.

Over time, deliberately focusing on and CHOOSING to bring more pleasure into your day-to-day can begin to impact the level of pleasure and enjoyment you experience during times that, for you, have not been sources of pleasure - things like work, family get-togethers that in the past have felt stressful, even the basics like your kids’ bedtime routine.

And when you begin to enjoy your day-to-day more, things REALLY get fun. :-) 

So I invite you to take some time this week to get clear on your current level of daily pleasure, get curious about how you can bring more pleasure in, and take one action step that will move you towards more pleasure in your life.

Your health will thank you.

And yes, you deserve it!

If you’re at a loss about what bringing in more pleasure could look like for you, or you want a fun way to support you in really doing this for yourself, I invite you to join my 5-Day Pleasure Challenge - this is a free video series aimed at giving you ideas and support around bringing more pleasure into your day-to-day quickly and easily so you can experience all the health benefits that can come with upping your daily pleasure - benefits like increased energy, better mood, healthier libido, and feeling more ALIVE!! 

You can join my 5-Day Pleasure Challenge here.