Find Your Pleasure – A Professional Sensualist?

Every heard of a “professional sensualist”?

Me, neither!

Cynthia Loyst is a self-proclaimed one!

Find Your Pleasure is about how we clunky humans fall into “pleasure deficits” – and let’s face it, Ladies (and Gents), we so often do! – and pulling ourselves back into the things that bring us … well… pleasure. Obviously. I mean, the book *is* called “Find Your Pleasure”! And boy, it certainly lives up to its name!

To begin, it is a lovely-looking book, with a peach, white, and black theme throughout.

There are beautiful photos threaded through this memoir and guidebook that teaches us how to indulge ourselves in the best possible ways!

Published in 2020, Loyst knew what we needed! After a year in solitude, most of us had gained the “Pandemic 15 lbs” and worn out (or burst through!) every pair of sweat/ yoga pants we owned.

Beautiful and healthy alternatives did not take the place of cake, ice cream, pizza, chips, coke, coffee drinks with whipped cream, etc. etc. etc.

Time to ***think about*** what we were putting in our mouths and into our bodies! And this book invites you to THINK.

It’s the kind of book you can hold on your lap and thumb through with “oohs and aahs,” or that you can open anywhere and read without being out of place.

Or, you could just begin at the beginning and work your way through! Me? I did a little of all of them. 🙂

In the Introduction, Loyst lays out The Keys to Pleasure:

Awareness
Attention
Authenticity
Help

Most of them are self-explanatory but the last one, Help? Here’s what it means:

“Ask for help, even if it’s for something small,” so that you can get through what needs to be done and carve out time for pleasure.

With that in mind, let me just say that the rest of the book if filled with help to navigate the realities of life with some neat ideas and what Loyst calls Pleasure Projects and Pleasure Killers.

She talks about home life, family and friends, parenting, kindness to self and others, food and eating, self-care, dating and relationships, sex and self-love (<<< in the literal sense, handled with grace and care).

One of my favorite subjects she speaks on is “The Soul of Objects” and it’s funny, just this morning, I was talking to my car, Ruby, and if you’ve been around for any length of time, you know her… anyway… I was saying to Ruby, “Thank you for always taking such good care of me. Did you know you’re my favorite car of ALL TIME?”

It was almost as if I could feel her preening! Fluffing and puffing up, proudly.

I have often said, “There is no downside in treating my car like a human!” If you think I’m nutty, oh well, and all I can say is that this little 2006 SUV has been a gem among gems and still going strong!

But yes, I do digress! But also, not really, since we’re talking about the soul of objects.

“Objects possess a kind of soul; they contain memory, meaning, and – I believe – a bit of magic.” -pg.33

I mean, c’mon. Isn’t that lovely?

There are also “Indulge Yourself” nudges with ideas like “Walk around a flower garden with your little one and see if you can spot a fairy.”

Funny, I kinda did that today! See, I was walking on a brand new path when I realized I was coming at something I’d see before… but from the other side! So, I stopped to take a photo. Look, it’s another look at the butterfly garden I told you about before!

It seems everything is inter-connected along the shore of Lake Ontario!

The Summer of 2021 has been my FAVE season in 20 years of living here, hands-down, because of the walks I’ve taken since June 7. I have found so many wonderful things on my foot-travels!

Just today, I took these photos: