Darling, when did pleasure become something else to get right?
This should feel good.
The room is beautiful. The food is lovely. Somebody wants you. You finally have a little time.
And still you are watching yourself have the experience. Checking whether everyone else is enjoying it. Wondering why you cannot simply relax.
Pleasure Is My Medicine begins with that quiet distance between having access to something good and feeling nourished by it.
What does pleasure cost you?
Do you have to earn it? Look a certain way inside it? Keep somebody happy? Make sure you deserve the time?
A good thing can arrive with an invisible invoice. The effort of paying it can take you out of the very experience you wanted.
Across seven stages, you explore the pleasures you choose, what they mean to you, and where receiving turns into another performance. You practise adjusting the pace, naming a preference and allowing enough to be enough.
Pleasure becomes more yours when your choice has a place inside it.
What happens after?
After the last bite. The touch. The compliment. The free evening.
Are you a little more available to your life? Or already searching for the next thing to change how you feel?
That is useful information. It can help you choose what genuinely feeds you.
Testimonials
A book you experience
Through reading, writing, body maps and my recorded guidance, you explore pleasure as a lived practice. You follow a sensory signal into its personal meaning, notice the conditions you attach to it, and build a ritual you can return to amid ordinary demands. The final question is what the experience makes possible in the moment that follows.
What you may begin to notice
A pleasure you can feel rather than merely approve of.
The obligation or performance attached to receiving.
When an enjoyable habit stops giving you what you need.
Your ability to adjust, pause or finish.
Something nourishing that can accompany you back into the day.
Four capacities you’ll practise
These are the five skills this journey focuses on. Follow each link to explore its place in the I AWAKE capacity system.
Pleasure discernment
Explore the difference between stimulation, relief and feeling nourished.
Pleasure & nervous-system regulationReceiving without performance
Notice what feels good without making yourself impressive or agreeable around it.
Pleasure & nervous-system regulationSatisfaction tracking
Pay attention to what an enjoyable experience leaves you feeling afterwards.
Pleasure & nervous-system regulationEnoughness recognition
Recognise when you feel satisfied and can allow an experience to end.
Pleasure & nervous-system regulationAfterglow integration
Carry something of a nourishing moment into the way you meet the next one.
Integration & wholeness
A structure that gives you room
Each stage gives you a way in, space to explore, and a way to close. Begin with the opening guided recording, where my voice and music I composed especially for the I AWAKE universe help you notice your body’s responses alongside thoughts and feelings. Read the day’s chapter. Explore three writing prompts and a body map as the fourth prompt, then return to the closing guided recording.
The rhythm becomes familiar as the questions deepen. Take one stage a day, stay longer with a chapter, or pause and return when you have room. You decide the pace, darling.
Listen to how it feels when I guide you.
Hear what it feels like to be guided.
Questions
and answers
It is a metaphor for pleasure that nourishes your participation in life. The book is an educational, reflective experience and does not offer medical treatment.
The journey goes into how you experience pleasure: what you notice, what it means, what gets in the way, and what remains afterwards. You develop a practice around your own responses.
No. Relief has a place. The work is to notice what you need and whether an experience is giving you that, without turning pleasure into another thing to judge yourself for.
No. The seven stages give the journey its sequence. You can take a stage each day, give a chapter more time, or pause and return. There is no deadline.
Give yourself time for my recorded guidance, reading, writing and body map. The books suggest that a couple of hours per stage can work well if you have that space. You can also spread a stage across more than one sitting.
It is a guided experience with chapters to read, specific writing prompts, body maps, my recorded guidance and music composed especially for the I AWAKE universe. You have a structure to follow, with room for your own responses.
Sensuality here includes your capacity to notice, feel, receive and respond through your body. Sexuality can belong to that experience, alongside touch, pleasure, emotion, presence and ordinary life.
You can begin with the journey whose question feels closest to your life. Each book offers its own sequence. The wider series gives you other places to explore when you want them.
This is an educational and reflective experience. It can sit alongside other forms of support, but it does not diagnose, treat or replace therapy or medical care. You can pause a practice whenever you need to.
Choose print and your physical book will be sent to you. Choose digital and your book will be available in your digital library immediately after checkout. You can read it directly in your library. With either edition, you’ll receive an email immediately after checkout with your access link and login details for the course platform, where my recorded guidance, the accompanying music and your course material are available.
What’s inside
Eight chapters. Seven stages to explore at your own pace. The final chapter is an integration imaginal journey, giving you space to bring the experience together.
Each of the seven stages includes:
- An opening guided recording with my voice and music I composed especially for the I AWAKE universe.
- The day’s chapter to read and explore.
- Three writing prompts, with space for your responses.
- A body map as the fourth prompt, to notice and record what you feel.
- A closing guided recording.
The pace, pauses and sequence of the guidance are deliberately chosen to help your nervous system settle. They give you time to notice your body’s responses alongside your thoughts and feelings before continuing with the reading and your own reflections. On the course platform, you can also choose to play the separate background music while you read and answer the questions.
You also receive The Circle, the guided imaginal journey for integration, and a longer guided practice to return to whenever you want time with yourself.
A substantial book, made to spend time with. The printed edition pairs premium, thick cream pages with full-colour illustrations and easy-to-read 15-point type. There is ample space to write, explore and doodle in the margins. Room to make this book your own.
If I were you, I’d want a sample first.
Enter your email to receive access to the first 50 pages for free in your digital library. We’ll email you a link to sign in and read your sample on the website.
Room for your experience
You shouldn’t have to translate yourself to feel seen.
There is room here for different genders, relationships and ways of moving through life. Whether you tend to reach, withdraw, over-give, stay guarded or become the one who handles everything, you can begin with your own experience.
This experience is for you if…
- Your life contains good things, yet you often feel strangely untouched by them.
- You find relief easily but have a harder time recognising satisfaction.
- You want pleasure to have a dependable place in ordinary life.
Each of the seven stages includes
- An opening guided recording with my voice and music I composed especially for the I AWAKE universe.
- A chapter with a specific theme to explore.
- Three writing prompts to bring the material into your own experience.
- A body map as the fourth prompt, to notice and record physical responses.
- A closing guided recording to return to the body and meet what has come up with care.
After the seven stages, continue with The Circle, a guided imaginal journey for integration. A longer guided practice is also included for you to return to.
Continuing with Aurora
Would you like company as you continue?
Aurora is the I AWAKE practice partner, designed to help you explore the book’s questions and bring the practices into daily life. She is currently available by invitation. Join the waiting list for information about access connected to your journey.
Aurora access is separate from the book, guidance and music access described here.
Let pleasure have a place in your life.
At the table. In your own skin. In the middle of an ordinary day. Somewhere you are present enough to receive it.
Prefer another retailer?
Choose your edition
Printed book + guidance and music
Your printed book includes access to my recorded guidance, the accompanying music and course material. Immediately after checkout, you’ll receive an email with your access link and login details for the course platform, where you’ll find my recorded guidance and the music that accompanies it. You can listen to my guidance and the music while your book is on its way.
Digital book + guidance and music
Your digital book will be available in your digital library immediately after checkout. You’ll read it in the library. You’ll also receive an email immediately after checkout with your access link and login details for the course platform, where you’ll find my recorded guidance, the accompanying music and course material.
Testimonials
