Grounding For Pleasure

Dearest Goddesses,

Pleasure…I’ve been allowing myself to experience snippets and really see the connection to not only perception and choice, but also to grounding.

In every moment, I have the choice to feel pleasure or pain or something in the middle of that spectrum. Sometimes these “choices” aren’t conscious, but I think it is possible to catch yourself and make a switch if you need to. I was sitting in traffic the other day, having a grand ole time. I was listening to Radio Dos – the only station on the planet I think where you can still hear Rhinestone Cowboy on the radio followed by We Are The World – and I was rockin out. It seemed to be one great song after another and I was totally enjoying sitting in traffic – I didn’t allow myself to get stressed out or cranky that I had taken a wrong turn and gotten stuck at a stupid intersection – I just let it be and continued the pleasure of singing the songs. NOW, this doesn’t happen all the time – and a lot of the times that I am sitting in traffic, I find myself headed toward the opposite spectrum of pain and torture and even when I’m there, I don’t make a conscious choice to get myself out of the funk and take the opportunity for a little pleasure – but the choice exists.

I tried to take this a step further in my head this morning and I thought about a disagreement that John and I had the other day. After the fact, I noticed that I consciously avoided his touch and requests for kisses – I kept the disagreement going. I could easily have chosen instead to head on the path of pleasure and be kissed and touched. Looking back, I can see that I was “proving a point” by withholding. Not particularly sure what that point was – or how effective it was! (To be honest, I don’t really remember the argument either – just the withholding. Sure would have been nice to choose the kisses and touches instead…)

Essentially we have to get out of our own way to be able to truly choose pleasure in the moment. I needed to give up being right in order to be present with John. I would have to avoid being the victim or whatever meaning I place behind the traffic in order to enjoy singing the songs on the radio instead of screaming at the traffic. Noone else would need to change a thing – just me. I am in control of my pleasure!

Now with that being said – having that choice become conscious requires some grounding – a connection to the Earth. If you consciously ground yourself you are not like a helium balloon being held by someone else – whose fate is guided by where the person wants to go or whether he/she wants to let go. Your roots are centered and feet planted firmly on the ground. This is needed in order to be able to access those higher levels of consciousness.

I’ve attached a grounding meditation from Wheels of Life, by Anodea Judith (I highly recommend this book for anyone interested in a comprehensive but very readable book on the chakras).

Patty’s Challenge: Do the grounding meditation and give yourself a gut check every once in awhile – is there a place where you are able to make the choice for pleasure – if so – choose that!

Love to you,
Patty