FROM CONTENTMENT TO PLEASURE

During yoga teacher training I happened to fall in love with the word santosha (sanskrit for contentment). Even pronouncing the word itself brought me a sense of content calmness. Go ahead, try it out for yourself. It feels good right? 

That time in my life was anything but calm and content, but amidst everything life was throwing at me I had my little word that magically made me feel grounded and secure. No matter what was going on around me I now had the ability to create a state of peace inside myself. 

For me, contentment meant being accepting of life’s ups and downs knowing I was capable of being ok. It was letting go of things out of my control and staying grateful for every little pleasant moment. 

I meditated santosha. I journaled santosha. I mantraed (yeah I know that’s not a real word) santosha. I was one with santosha. 

So what did I do after teacher training? Teach yoga? Nope! I took my ass back to pole classes with a dedication I never had before, because you see, as content as I was there was something missing. I missed undulating my hips and flipping my hair and wearing the tiny shorts. I missed feeling more than just contentment. I was missing pleasure.

I, a previous “I just do tricks, I’m not really into that sexy stuff” poler found myself craving all the sexy stuff. I had come to the part of my (very long and ongoing) journey where I discovered my body was all for me and I couldn’t stop exploring. 

I felt pleasure as I watched myself learn to do leg waves and wiggle my ass and run my hands and fingers wherever they were drawn to. I felt pleasure as my hands explored and explored without shame. As I started teaching I felt tremendous emotional pleasure watching others discover all of these things for themselves on their own journeys.

Contentment is a beautiful way to move through your day, but pleasure is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Pleasure keeps me present in my body. Pleasure is what drives me to keep exploring and keep diving deeper. Pleasure brought me back to me. And it’s my wish for you all to find pleasure just for you. 

Want to explore pleasure a little deeper? Join me in our After Dark Workshops