Welcome.
It's good to be with you.
Today I'd like to share a practice with you to help your body to ground into the felt sense of pleasure as technology.
The word pleasure can bring up a lot for us,
But for the purposes of our practice,
Let's begin from a shared foundation that we're here to explore pleasure not as indulgence,
But rather as intelligence.
Pleasure not as a means of escape,
But pleasure as a return to your sacred inner architecture.
This practice invites you to feel with and into this somatic knowing,
And we're going to do this by attuning to micro pleasure in the body.
I invite you now to make any shifts or adjustments that you might want to make in your position or your surroundings in order to arrive at maximum comfort.
And when you're ready,
You can soften into your body now.
Notice the contact between your body and the surface that's holding you.
Allow yourself to feel into the experience of being held.
How does it feel to be held by the floor,
Or the chair,
Or the cushion,
Or couch,
Or bed?
Wherever,
Whatever is holding you now.
And can you feel for the earth underneath that surface?
Can you feel for all of the layers of material reality that are holding you right now?
And as you feel for that,
Can you invite your body to trust what's holding you one percent more?
Can you allow your body to soften into that surface and the earth beneath it just a bit more,
Ever so slightly?
Notice that softening.
Notice that the surface holding you is not a reward for your effort.
The earth beneath you is not an indulgence.
Being held in this way,
Allowing yourself to soften in this way,
You do not have to earn this.
It's already yours,
And it's always available.
And now I invite you to bring your conscious awareness inside,
To the experience of sensation moving through you now.
Notice if there's any place in your body where you feel a small,
Pleasant sensation.
We're not going for maximum sensation right now,
Just something slight.
A small,
Pleasant sensation of ease or expansion,
Of gentle warmth,
Of a little buzz or a little tingle.
Whatever feels pleasurable to you.
And this sensation might be localized in one area of your body,
Or it might be ambient.
Allow your awareness to rest with this sensation.
If it's accessible,
And if it's something that you would like to try,
You can bring one or both of your hands to a space that's housing this pleasant sensation.
But this is only an invitation,
Not required.
Your hands may have another position that they'd like to take on,
So listen for that because they know.
And once your hands have landed,
We'll stay with this micro-pleasure sensation in the body for three breaths.
We'll inhale into sensation,
And as we exhale,
We'll soften into the earth that's holding us for three rounds.
Three rounds of breathing to attune to pleasure and to soften into being held.
If you're ready,
Let's begin.
Inhale and feel into this micro-pleasure.
And as you exhale,
Soften into what's holding you.
Inhale again into pleasure.
Exhale and soften.
One last time,
We'll inhale to notice pleasurable sensation,
And exhale to notice our softening into the earth beneath us.
Allow your breath to return to its natural rhythm.
And notice if anything has shifted in your body,
Even if it's very subtle,
From this practice of saying yes to pleasure.
When we allow our bodies to soften and feel in this way,
We can shift from coping to creation,
From bracing to embodied trust.
And pleasure can become a compass,
Reorienting us toward deeper self-recognition and toward a felt sense of our bodies as a receiver of divine signal.
And in this receptivity,
We can become a channel for spirit.
Pleasure in this way is not a reward.
It's a space for repair.
Repair within ourselves and repair within our relationship to life.
As you're ready,
You can return your awareness to the space that you're in and to this present moment.
And you can carry this knowing of your inherent worthiness of softening and pleasure into whatever comes next.
Feel free to return to this practice anytime whenever you need a somatic reminder of your capacity to attune and learn from pleasure.
Thank you so much for practicing with me and I look forward to meeting you here again soon.
Much love.
