Awakening Pleasure
Often times, as women, it can be easy for us to feel disconnected from pleasure. There’s many reasons why we disconnect but often times we subconsciously associate pleasure with shame. Inevitably our disconnection blocks our relationship to our body, which becomes a vicious cycle of how we experience (and don’t experience) pleasure.
Once in a disconnected relationship with the self and our body, it’s all about the little steps and embodied practices to rebuild our awareness of our body’s feelings and sensations. It’s an intentional practice to repair this sacred relationship so we can heal and experience pleasure on our own terms.
A PRACTICE
Tomorrow we are diving into this topic virtually in Coven, but we wanted to offer a simple practice to help you invite pleasure into your body, with the exploration of a single grape. This practice encourages you to slow down, use our senses to experience a single grape with curiosity and mindfulness. The point is to experience the grape and to allow yourself to have this new experience of pleasure through your senses.
Find a comfortable place to sit.
Using a single grape, hold it in your hand/fingers. As you hold it, explore the grape using just your sight. Notice the colours, shape, perfections/imperfections and making sure to explore with curiosity, not judgment. Do this for at least one minute.
Now hold the grape up to your nose. Smell the grape, noticing it’s aroma. Again, do this for at least a minute.
Notice if you’re trying to hurry the process and remind yourself to slow down and that you are worth having this experience.
Place the grape in your mouth, but do not bite it. Experience the texture of the grape in your mouth as well as any flavours being tasted. Move the grape around in your mouth slowly, resisting the urge to bite. Explore with your tongue. Do this for another minute.
Now take ONE bite into the grape, allow the juices from within the grape to fill your mouth. Experience the flavour, texture and really allow yourself to taste the grape. Notice your senses and how the juice in your mouth feel. Be with the sweet and sour and any other flavours that are present for you. Again, stay here for a minute.
Finish the grape, chewing slowly, savouring every bite.
Once you’re done, sit with yourself about this experience. Was it challenging to move slowly? What did you notice about each step? What did you gain from this experience?