I’ve been in my healing era for the better part of three decades.
I’ve wept in classrooms as I released generations of trauma from my womb.
I’ve driven two hours through the Mexican countryside to have a healer spit mezcal on my back.
I’ve sung myself home in sweat lodges, saunas, and medicine journeys.
I’ve changed my diet – first to strict vegetarian, then to all the meat.
I’ve got a shelf full of nonfiction books that would make an Alexandrian librarian swoon and an herb cabinet to make a witch drool.
And last month, I had a big realization – I’m all caught up.
It’s not that I’m totally healed (HA!). It’s that I no longer see myself as broken.
What’s changed? I’ve turned my orientation from fixing and toward pleasure.
Pleasure is the fastest gateway to healing (TL;DR all the books – when we’re in a state of pleasure we activate the feel-good hormones, the parasympathetic nervous system response, and a general sense of hope instead of fear).
It’s a total 180 because we – those in our healing eras – orient toward punishment as a way to fix our problems.
Think about the language we use in healing:
Torn wide open
Peeling back the layers
Raw and exposed
And the types of treatments and diets that focus on cleansing, releasing, getting rid of.
And yet we’re in a time when we are already depleted. Already undernourished. Already underprotected and overexposed.
It’s like the definition of insanity.
So here’s my proposal for you – what if you did something different? What if you tried an orientation to pleasure instead of punishment?
I’m going to lead a free intro workshop on the topic on Wednesday, April 16. We’ll talk about:
- How to get out of the mindset that a healing journey or spiritual awakening requires physical or mental deprivation.
- The fascinating link between pain and pleasure (why we seek it).
- How to soften and find safety in surrender
- How to build a pleasure practice that doesn’t feel like a chore.
Pleasure Prescription: Awakening a New Way of Wellness
Wednesday, April 16 @ 12:30 p.m. PST
Register free here
I’ll see you on the other side of broken.
