Pleasure/Leisure/Joy

Pleasure is:

  • Fleeting raw feelings
  • Experienced through the senses and emotions
  • Often brought on by physical, social, or environmental factors
  • Is in the moment, is now
  • Is easy

 

Cultivating Pleasure

Pleasure pitfall:  It habituates easily.

  • You can avoid habituation by spreading out the instances of pleasure in your life so that you experience them more intensely.
  • You can enhance your experience of pleasure by savoring it.
    • Attention to the present (not thinking about the future)
    • Conscious focus
    • Sharpening perceptions
    • Absorption
    • Sharing
    • Memory-building
  • Mindfulness is a careful observation of the present in a slow state of mind.
    • Slow down
    • Sense your surroundings
    • Meditate 


Pleasures List

Circle the activities that you would like to engage in more or for the first time and add goals for incorporating these activities into your life.

 Pedicure  Movies
 Go to the Plays  Walk
 Hike  Spend time with family
 Spend time with friends  Lunch with friends
 Shop  Sit in the backyard
 Watch the 3 Stooges  Watch “I Love Lucy”
 Listen to old radio shows  Be spontaneous
 Rearrange a room  Try a new recipe
 Listen to the birds  Bird watching
 Looking at my landscape  Sit in the sunroom in the morning and look at  the flowers
 Taking a long shower  Being around creative people with new ideas
 Skiing  Being outside
 Golf  Knitting
 Biking  Watching birds or animals
 Take naps  Get hair done
 Read  Massage
 Rent a hotel room somewhere for a short trip  Visit Museums

  •  Art
  • History
  • Science
 Go to Borders Bookstore  Look at catalogs
 See Authors speak  Go to Pasadena
 Travel  Amusement park rides
 Fairs  Pig races
 Reconnect with long lost family and friends  Zoo
 Go to car shows  Watch old “Saturday Night Live” Shows
 Go to Musical Comedies  Go to Hermosa Beach, Venice, Santa Monica
 Watch sports in person or on television  Play sports
 Read the paper  Play poker with friends
 Go to the horse races  Read “People” magazine


Pleasure List


Goal Column 1

Goal Column 2
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 
 

 

 

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