The Healing Power of Pleasure
As we enter the fullness of spring and turn towards summer, we get to bear witness to mother nature putting out her beauty in full effect. I am back in New York for the summer and here on Lake Ontario I am surrounded by lilac bushes, dogwood trees, and rhododendrons, all in full bloom.
What is it about flowers that seem to embody our emotional expression of healing, joy, well wishes, gratitude, love, and passion?
The tradition of giving flowers dates back to ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome as offerings to the gods. In the mid-1700s, the French and English discovered a language of flowers in Turkey that gave meaning to every type of flower and this knowledge was shared throughout the Victorian Era.
One of my favorite remedies in Naturopathic medicine are Flower Essences, homeopathic preparations of flowers themselves, which can expel stuck emotional energy and infuse our very soul with nourishing positivity.
We are sentient, sensual beings! We need to feed and nourish this aspect of ourselves. And when I say pleasure I am not just talking about sex! While I am a big fan of sexual intimacy, too often we ONLY think of sensuality in terms of sex. There is so, so much more.
Read on to explore the power of beauty, pleasure, and sensuality and their ability to impact your healing journey, your nervous system, and your relationship to FOOD!
Spoiler alert: lacking the “sweetness of life” often is a root cause of emotional eating, binging behavior, and addictive tendencies.
If you’re reading this blog, odds are you’re interested in healing. Here’s the thing: we cannot heal if our body is in survival. What does that mean? Survival happens when our body is in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn mode. It is a state where we have a lot of cortisol coursing through our bodies, and can include the aftermath of a short period of high stress OR years of “normal” stress which can turn into adrenal exhaustion and the inability to make or convert sufficient hormones of cortisol, DHEA, estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone.
There are genes that turn on our healing mechanisms and our body, and for those switches to be flipped on, we MUST be in a relaxed, safe, low-stress environment.
While the functional and naturopathic medicine communities talk about sleep, diet, and exercise, we often overlook a relatively easy area of life with which we could elevate our healing to the next level.
If we break it down, to be a sentient being means we have the ability to feel (distinguished from ability to think). So what about our living and working environments? How do you FEEL in your office or work space? What do you FEEL when you look out your window?
Research has found that appreciating beauty can help heal anxiety and depression. Experiencing awe can reduce inflammation and the risk of many diseases. Experiencing beauty can increase one's sense of hope.
In my exploration of the healthy and unhealthy ways humans interact with food, I have found both personally and with my clients that when we are devoid of pleasure, joy, community, a sense of belonging or enjoyment we are WAY more likely to turn to food as one of our major sources of comfort or pleasure.
When I looked deeply into this on a personal level, I could see that I turned to alcohol to create a sense of ‘false joy’ when there wasn’t any joy naturally in my life. So I ask you to look into your own life, and ask yourself:
What brings you pleasure?
What brings you joy?
What inspires you?
Where do you experience awe?
And here’s a challenge for you to cultivate this sense in your own life: sit down and write out a list of 100 things you LOVE!
I was given this assignment last winter when I was working on digging myself out of grief after my father’s death. I was ready to start rebuilding my life and I didn’t know how to continue to grieve in a healthy way while also making more room for joy. My dear friend Cory Thorell, internationally renowned life coach and frequent guest on HEAL, lovingly challenged me to write this list. I invite you to really push yourself to write down 100 things and not settle for anything less.
Here are the first 30 items from my own list to get your heart juices flowing…
Skiing: what I love about it is riding lifts in the mountains, being outside the adventure of the changing weather, the movement of my body, being good at it, the rush of the speed, how I look, how it feels, the people I meet there.
Apres ski: what I love about it is enjoying cozy, warm firelight with cold cheeks coming in form outside, drinking a beer or glass of red wine, sharing and laughing with friends about the day!
Cabins in the mountains
Saunas
Cold plunges especially in rivers & lakes
Living simple
Being a minimalist
Road trips out west
Open views and expanses
Traveling to foreign places
Exploration of places and ideas
Adventuring
Doing hard things
Physical challenges - like hiking through a mountain range
Doing hard workouts with friends
Sailing long distances
Learning more about sailing
Learning new things in general
Speaking Spanish
Being immersed in latin culture
Pushing myself to and just beyond my comfort zone
Where we have gotten to with HEAL now in its 5th year!
Building a community and teaching healthy living
Living with or being around people committed to sustainability living connected to nature / off the grid
Being organized
Everything having its place
Getting really good at something
Ceremonies & rituals
Sweat lodges
Sitting in medicine circles
Hang your list up somewhere you can see it, read it very day, and start to cultivate more pleasure in your life by intentionally following your joy. Good luck! Would love to hear how this exercise went for you - email me to let me know.