What has been my biggest take away from Mama Gena’s School of Womanly Arts you ask?
Well, there are so many it’s hard to say… but while sitting at a cute breakfast place in the upper west side, I had a profound realization about what this has been for me.
Each weekend of the program we have started and ended with a pledge. A pledge to put PLEASURE first. Why is that a big deal you might ask. Well, it didn’t seem like a big deal at first. Actually it felt kind of goofy saying it. But once I got it, once I started to embody it, I now feel the power of it.
Declaring to put pleasure first means that what turns me on and what makes me happy, alive and full of joy, is what comes first in my life.
Before everything else.
Before my to do lists, emails, business, success, the next launch, what other people think of me, friendships, relationships, family, money. Oh the list goes on.
It means out with the belief that when this gets done then I will have time for ME. OR the belief that if I have so much money in the bank then I will be happy. OR that pleasure comes from any end result, or that I will have pleasure when I figure it all out.
Mama Gena demands that we do things differently. Pleasure first .. AND I am stepping up to her call.
Now I know so deeply that my joy, my pleasure, my happiness, is the most important contribution to the world that I can make.
The world is a better place when I am turned on and in my pleasure. My family, my relationship, and my business are infused with my JOY.
This is a bold, courageous, and vulnerable declaration! It takes facing my fears, feeling all my emotions, loving all parts of me; from my rage, my anger, my indecision, my grief, my sadness, to my brilliance, my beauty, my compassion. It takes sharing who I am fully to others, and not allowing anyone or anything to dictate how I feel about myself. It takes self-respect. It takes listening to that inner voice that knows what’s best for me.
It’s also a declaration that my pleasure is MY responsibility. Not yours, not society's, not my parents', or not my partner's. It's mine.