Everyone's life needs some pleasure. To engage in activities that please us, energizes us, and with that energy we can not only help ourselves, but we can help others as well.
Do you have enough pleasure in your life? Do you know what brings you the best pleasure? If you're a bit down and out, it may be that you've weighted your life on the side of duty rather than pleasure. It is best to strike a good balance.
I'm thinking about this topic as I think about my loved ones and what I can do to support them the most. Some, for example, may sometimes tip the life scale too far on the pleasure side. As I write this I'm thinking of some of the young adults in my life--with all kinds of fun available at college or in their young adult communities, pleasure is rarely missing. Others, mostly older loved ones, may sometimes negate pleasure in favor of too much duty to work or routines--for them, it's important to make sure they get a good dose of pleasure regularly.
So what does bring you pleasure, and how do you make sure that's a part of your life?
For those who may seem not to have enough pleasure in their lives, you may want to ask them, Are you having enough fun? If they say no, you might follow up with, We all need some fun in our lives, let's plan something that's fun. I know that for me, to have something fun to plan and look forward to energizes my mood and efforts in positive ways. It's far easy to sacrifice, be frugal, and get the hard work done, if there's something pleasurable at the other end of all that work.
Also, it's important to know what brings you and others plesaure. My sister and I often poke fun at a weekend we planned and executed as young adults. The activities we engaged in were dull--we didn't pay enough attention to what really brought us pleasure before planning the weekend. We learned a lot about what doesn't bring us pleasure on that excursion. To have fun, you have to know what your really enjoy and what brings you plesaure, and to help a loved one live a good life, you have to know what brings them pleasure too and then make that happen.
In the days ahead, as I think about how I'll support my loved ones, I'll be thinking about that pleasure balance. For some, I may need to support and encourage a bit more fidelity to their studies, work, and tasks at hand, and for others, we may need to help them have more fun.
Pleasure is an important aspect of life because positive, pleasurable experiences energize us, and then we can use that energy to uplift our lives and the lives of others in many ways. Onward.