Guest Blog by Ian Ferguson
Guess what?
You are not the sum total of your circumstances!
You are not your past!
You are not your future!
You are a magnificent being who has the ability to experience gratitude and aliveness anytime, anywhere.
No, I’m not suggesting you need to discount your life experiences, bypass your traumas or let go of your hopes and dreams of a beautiful future.
However, I assert, that nothing is happening besides what is happening right now in this present moment you are currently experiencing.
Everything else is a story that you experience through 4 inputs: thoughts, images, sensations and emotions.
The past and the future gain their power by hooking us with these 4 inputs and then, most importantly, with the stories we make up about them.
We create stories full of drama, often making up things that are not even true about some experience we had. Then we identify with these meanings and believe that they are us. We become defined by them and, in some sense, imprisoned by these stories we tell.
Freedom from the hooks appears to happen when we get present to what’s happening in our moment by moment existence – presence to ‘what is’ without the stories, beliefs and meanings that flood our minds (and bodies) incessantly.
Yes, but how do we live in this state of perpetual presence to ‘what is’?
Not sure it’s possible unless you’re an enlightened master of some kind or other, but…
How do you improve your odds of being in this state more often than not?
How can you improve your odds of creating each moment as part of a beautiful and fulfilling dream?
There are many techniques to help you get present.
One of our favorite methods is to…
Put Pleasure First
This practice is so important to us, we put it as the #1 value in our Core Brand Values for our company.
Yes, you read that right!
Core value #1 for Jaiya, Inc. is Pleasure First!
Wouldn’t you love to work for a company that starts everything with Pleasure First?
We are far from perfect at incorporating this value in everything, but having it as value #1 has us reminded all the time of what’s important and also much more likely to prioritize and implement this beautiful commitment.
What is your #1 Core Value?
How can putting pleasure first help you live in a state of deeper presence? Not only that but also help you experience pleasure infused in every moment?
We’ve got millions of years of genetic programming designed to have us look for danger.
Everything is a potential threat, our primal brain screams.
Scanning the horizon or our email inbox for something that’s going to eat us or f**K us – in good and bad ways.
You’ve got an opportunity every moment to rewire your nervous system and have it seeking and experiencing the pleasure that is available right now.
Take a moment right now and scan for pleasure.
Often when we scan our bodies we automatically look for where we don’t feel good.
Close your eyes and scan your body and find at least one spot where you feel pleasure.
Keep your eyes closed and focus on this pleasure zone.
With each breath imagine you’re filling the spot with light or liquid and expanding the pleasure, like your filling up a balloon.
Each breath you’re expanding the pleasure throughout your body until your body is engulfed in this pleasure.
Notice!
Feel what pleasure like this feels like, so you know how to return to it.
Even if this exercise proves challenging, simply beginning to practice using your mind to seek pleasure will have you find it more often.
Now use this technique when scanning…
- Your to-do list
- Your desktop or computer desktop
- Your immediate surroundings no matter where you may be
- Your lover’s face or body
- A friend or family members face
Use scanning for pleasure as a way to get present to the here and now.
Use Pleasure First as a way to tap into gratitude for ‘what is’ as it is. Nothing more and nothing less.
One of our favorite questions to ask is…
How can I make this moment even more pleasurable?
Ask this to bring the pleasurable into the unpleasurable or to turn up the volume on what’s amazing right now.
I’ve got a wildly powerful and simple breathing technique I use to bring myself to presence in a state of pleasure that I call The Breath of Pleasure!
I show you how to use this breath in a Blog Post from just a few weeks ago: One Single Breath to Access Pleasure!
The Breath of Pleasure has the ability to alter your state and bathe your brain in pleasure hormones in a one single breath.
It’s amazing and beautiful!
I hope you’ll give it a try.
How can you put Pleasure First in everything you do?
Check it out and see how it just might change your life.
Guest Blog by Ian Ferguson
