How intimate are you with yourself?
We tend to think of intimacy as something that is about our connection with others. About knowing another person well: knowing their thoughts, their hopes and dreams and fears. Their admirable qualities and probably their annoying habits too. Many of us also think of it as being about being physically close to someone else. About being familiar with their body, what feels good to them and what makes them cringe.
However, in our experience, healthy and meaningful intimacy with others starts with becoming more familiar with ourselves. With investing time to figure out what’s really going inside ourselves. Over the coming months we will share different types of guidance to become more intimate with yourself, including with your thoughts and emotions.
But today we invite you to focus on your sensations, as we found that many people spend the least amount of time focusing their attention on their sensory experience. And as a result they don’t experience much sensory pleasure.
And there is SO MUCH potential for sensory pleasure in every day of our lives. Even when we experience pain. And even when we are super busy. Sensory pleasure can relieve stress and anxiety, reduce feelings of depression and lighten grief. Simply because it makes us feel alive.
So ask yourself:
At what daily moment could I easily focus on sensory pleasure? On anything that you are feeling, smelling, hearing, seeing or tasting. And for the next week, try to consistently treat yourself to this little pleasure moment. Every day.
All you need is your body and a minimum of 1 minute of your time.
Of course you could also try to discover many pleasure moments each day and write them all down, but, to get started, we recommend picking one experience and trying to remember it for several days in a row. So one of the five senses at a specific moment of the day.
These examples might provide some inspiration. And to inspire others: share the pleasure moment (or moments) that you discover in the dedicated post on Facebook or Instagram.