embracing pleasure

a hot topic indeed 🔥 and one that totally used to freak me out, especially when I was deep in my ED. Pleasure is something that is so often stripped away, telling us that we are unworthy and unable to enjoy the pleasures of life, no matter how small. Pleasure can be closing our eyes in the sunshine and allowing the rays to warm our skin, eating a delicious dessert, connecting intimately with ourselves or a partner, or being totally present in a quiet moment.

Allowing and embracing pleasure requires that we allow ourselves to take up space, to fully immerse ourselves in something. Our body, mind, senses, and emotions will sink into the experience and allow the pleasure to fill us up. The ability to allow such an experience used to terrify me, and, even still, I sometimes find myself resisting. This is totally normal and gives us an opportunity to get curious about why we might be feeling such resistance. There is likely something there that needs some compassion or love.

Trusting and settling into the body is foundational to being able to experience pleasure fully. This is because we need to trust that our body will take care of us as we move through different emotions, especially ones that require a degree of letting go. Believing that we are deserving of such delightful experiences can be hard, so start small if that is something you are struggling with.

I’ve found that it’s often the really small moments that add up and make me feel particularly grounded and whole — slowly learning that I am (and we ALL are) allowed to experience joy and wonder and pleasure and that it doesn’t negate the trauma in our lives, but it can help us to heal and reclaim the life we really want to live.