One kind of pleasure is mindless entitlement that slows your progress and the other is honorable savoring that elevates your being. .
The Wisdom of Pleasure
Hello Beautiful,
Isn’t it ironic that elevated pleasures can be a fast track to growth and resilience?
While we certainly grow from suffering, we also grow from regenerative delights.
It’s true that we grow stronger from being stretched and stressed beyond our current capabilities. Paradoxically, it’s also true that mindful pleasure is an amazing tool for staying in your body, and not disembodying.
Most people split their being and leave their body/mind/spirit connection even before they enter adulthood. They feel their body isn’t a safe place, a good place, a home…and they leave their connection to their embodiment.
This results in an inability to feel deep pleasure and satisfaction. God has designed us to be a united, integrated being who is capable of staying present in the moment.
This presence reduces our experience of suffering and intensifies our experience of pleasure.
Pleasure can heal us by bringing us back to our senses, by deepening our connection to the moment, by rejuvenating us body, soul, and spirit. True pleasures heal, delight, and refresh us to continue in life.
Mindless pleasures are those that don’t satisfy, don’t align with our value sets and long term goals, or those pleasures that we rush through instead of savoring and soaking in the healing power of the experience.
When we leave pleasure as an after thought in a relationship, in a day, or in a life, we miss a key component in our growth and strength. Pleasure unites us in our being, in the moment, and in our relationships
It takes courage to receive pleasure. Pleasure that’s not “earned” or meted out. Pleasure that is a gift…a wave of generosity…a wash of grace…a generous flood that resets our being…is meant to be our inheritance by our loving Creator.
It’s time for us to prioritize pleasure. It’s time to use it as it was intended to be used—as a life sustaining, life generating force.
I encourage you to begin your day with a wise pleasure, it will set the tone of receiving Divine grace and delight. Then, try to find a midday delight-at least 10 minutes— to refresh your Being. Lastly, finish your day with a pre-chosen delight.
At the end of the day we are especially vulnerable to low quality indulgences because our will power has been depleted throughout the day. Circumvent this with a plan, so you finish your day with a delightful big picture win not a set-back.
It’s wise to pre-plan your pleasure for 2 reasons:
1. It helps us prioritize pleasure rather than leave it as an afterthought. This improves our quality of life immensely. By paying attention to cultivating delights in your day, you improve everything about your life.
2. It ensures that the quality of your pleasures is strategic not defacto. If you have no plan, a low quality pleasure easily usurps the place of a truly beneficial experience under the guise of “I deserve this” rather than “I choose this-because it’s a beautiful expression of the pleasure God made for me to enjoy.” One is mindless entitlement and the other is honorable savoring that elevates your being.
I hope I have given you some food for thought in how you relate to pleasure and inspired you to make elevated pleasures a higher priority in your life. Pleasure is pious when it’s principled.
Cheering you on,
Rachel
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