do you know what’s your pleasure?
There are moments in our everyday life when we feel like something pleasant. After the work is done, we feel like a reward, as a parent when you finally have your free time, after physical exertion… I could mention many of such situations.
Of course, each of them results from our nature, the habits we build on a daily basis, the way we function. There is also a psychological explanation for this, according to the theory that pleasure is one of the five basic human needs. Next to self-esteem, control – incl. sense of security, orientation & attachment, pleasure is an inseparable element of our inner peace. Pleasure is also part of our happiness.
Knowing all this I would like to ask you an important question:
Do you know what’s your pleasure?
If you were asked right now, would you be able to name 5 things you enjoy? If you know what’s the top 5 right away, than try to name 10. If you feel like it, share them in the comments below.
If the only thing that comes to your mind is food, ask yourself an additional question: is it really a pleasure or a reward? Who are you feeding – your happiness, or maybe your fears, confusion or fatigue. Food can be a great pleasure, but in case of rewarding yourself can also be a trap of habit or lack of other ideas.
I found myself alone in such a situation once, it was in the context of a reward. After a lot of work done, which required a lot of commitment from me, I felt that I really want to reward myself. The problem was that I didn’t know how. Apart from a chocolate brownie or other guilty pleasure, there weren’t many things that occurred to me.
In this moment it became clear to me, that I didn’t know it at this moment cause I’m not thinking about it on a daily basis. I never asked myself what could be a personal, valuable reward for myself.
Based on my own experience, I will tell you that it is fun to build such a personal database of pleasure. Some of them can be large, requiring special conditions, such as for example my snorkel trips, but finding the smaller ones that I can reach at any time made me really start using my collection.
The moments when I feel like pleasure are often unplanned, sometimes they occur after a lot of physical or mental effort, when creativity in the area of self-care is not at its maximum. Then I go back to my database and choose the options best suited to the moment, my mood and needs.
Below I have created, now right now my quick list. Perhaps it will be inspiring for you & not in the context of duplicating my favorite things, but the directions of thinking. Pleasure is such an individual matter that for one person it will be watering the garden, and for another it will be a heavy metal concert. I think what’s important is to connect with yourself and listen to your needs so that you can respond to them. With pleasure.
My three thoughts on creating a list of pleasures:
- I start by searching between things that I have already lived and know that I like.
- I choose pleasures of various caliber: a number of small, simple ones for every situation, including those in which I have little time, I need something simple, the big ones for moments when I have more time and opportunities.
- Once I have the basic ones, I look at my dreams and experiment with them.
Hope this article was helpful for you & helped you discover something new. I decided to write it after conducting a little experiment among my friends whom I asked the question from the top of this article. The vast majority of them did not know the answer, but this conversation motivated them to take up the topic and analyze their pleasures.
Have fun with yours.
fot. Michal Pawlik
