5 Ways To Get More Pleasure in Your Life
Image: Olaiya Land
Raise your hand if you’re feeling some form of burnout at the end of this grueling year. 👋🏽
It’s going to take all of us a while to fully recover from everything we’ve been through. But today I want to talk about my secret weapon for combatting burnout:
Pleasure.
It makes me sad that the notion of pleasure often feels a little naughty in our puritanical American culture. Because pleasure, while it can be naughty if you want it to be, is so much more than that.
Pleasure can be as simple as stepping into your back yard to listen to the birds while you drink your morning cup of coffee. Laughing at your kid’s awful knock-knock jokes. Slipping between a pair of fresh, crisp sheets when you head to bed.
It doesn’t have to be all fireworks and trumpets.
These simple moments of leaning into pleasure help you slow down, breathe deeper, and notice the joys that balance out life’s frustrations and challenges. All of which helps keep burnout at bay.
As someone who is alive and employed in 2021, I also know that finding the time to fit pleasure into our daily lives can be a challenge.
So I’m sharing a few of the strategies I use to fit moments of pleasure into my day every day:
#1 The 5% Pleasure Principle
I learned this one from my teacher Ann Nguyen and it has been a life changer! It’s as simple as asking yourself “How can I make this 5% more pleasurable?”
Prepping your taxes? Put on your favorite music, change into your silkiest pjs, pour yourself a glass of wine and dive in.
Have a work deadline? Grab a blanket and head outside to write a first draft of your presentation with the sun on your skin.
Get shitty sleep last night? Start your day by brewing a cup of your favorite, most fragrant tea and drinking it out of a fancy teacup instead of your usual Starbucks mug.
Once you start, it’s pretty easy to think of ways to make your daily activities just 5% more pleasurable. And those little shifts add up.
#2 Make a Pleasure List
I used to be so bad at creating space for things that bring me joy, I didn’t even know where to start when I had the time for pleasure. So I made a Pleasure List.
When you’re relaxed, take some time to brainstorm a master list of things that make you feel good. Cat naps. Watching a comedy show. Alphabetizing your spice rack. Japanese flower arranging. Whatever. If you like it, write it down.
That way when you’re too fried to even figure out what will make you feel better, you can just pick at random from your list.
Your future self will thank you.
#3 Do It First Thing
Remember when I said I used to be terrible at creating space for pleasure? It was so abysmal I went to see a therapist about it and she gave me the homework of doing something pleasurable first thing every day for a week.
It was horrible. I hated it. 😰
Did she not understand I had work to get done???
But I did it anyway. And it changed my life.
Every day for a week, and then longer, I got up and made pleasure a priority.
Some days it was something as small as opening a new luxurious bar of soap for my morning shower. Sometimes it was something bigger like a morning photography walk with my camera.
The act of prioritizing activities that make you feel good completely shifts your energy for the day. Try this for a week and I guarantee you’ll start showing up more fully for everything you do afterwards.
#4 Put A Reminder on Your Phone
I have a daily reminder on my phone that says “Pleasure Every Day, Baby!”
I’m not gonna lie, when it pops up in the middle of my workday it sometimes annoys me.
But don’t worry—you don’t have to drop what you’re doing and go off to get a Swedish massage.
A daily reminder simply keeps the message at the forefront of your mind. That way when you have the option to keep working or take a 10 minute stroll around the block, you’ll remember how important it is to step away from your computer and move your body.
#5 Let Small Things Count
You probably already have a lot of pleasurable moments in your life that you don’t even notice.
Experiencing more pleasure can be as simple as slowing down enough to actually notice that you’re experiencing pleasure.
I’m not saying you have to get all Buddhist-monk-level mindful.
You just have to occasionally notice that the birds are singing. And your partner’s neck smells amazing. And that fresh strawberries eaten right out of the carton are a thing of beauty.
Again, small things add up.
Which is the beauty of all this.
You may not be able to book your 2-week vacay to Bali to get away from it all yet. But you can relieve some of your burnout stress today and every day.❤️
If you give any of these a try, I’d love to hear about it! Drop a comment below or come on over and say hi on Instagram.
XO,
Olaiya
