What is a Modern Hedonist?
… And why you want to be one too…
We live in our heads. Mostly anyway.
We’re preoccupied with the future, the past, the best way to get to work. We think our way through every meal, through walking the dog, even making love. We try to impress, to be insightful, funny, popular. At the very least, avoid embarrassment. We sacrifice ourselves for the well-being of others.
We’re missing out on living.
We miss out on most of our lives simply because we don’t know how to experience it fully. We don’t realize that our body has its own intelligence (and might even be smarter than our heads). We forget that we have 5 senses, giving us a constant stream of sensual information right here in this moment. Those sensations go way beyond the physical, too. Everything can be experienced sensually – emotions, thoughts, spiritual connections…
Do you know what your joy feels like? The actual physical, tangible experience of your joy?
A modern hedonist does. A modern hedonist is a sensualist, one who lives and breathes and sees through the senses, cultivating a presence in the world that is aware and engaged with life – not just physically, but emotionally, mentally and spiritually.
Modern hedonists drink life in, feel it and understand it through their bodies. Anger, pain, sorrow. Relaxation, joy, courage. God and the soul. Inspiration and intuition. Everything is sensual, and a modern hedonist consciously indulges in the sensuality of everything.
In the past, hedonism has come to reflect an idea of excess, of abandon without care for ourselves or others, of overindulgence. It is irresponsible sex, eating too much, sleeping too late. It is drugs and shallowness, wealth without regard, excess without caring. It follows the next pleasure without responsibility, and in the end, without any real pleasure at all.
It’s time to change that definition – to understand what it means to consciously and ecstatically embrace our inner and outer world.
It’s time to engage life as a full-body experience.
To feel and understand emotions, thoughts and spirituality through physical sensations. From that kind of understanding, wholeness emerges – an integration of your physical and present being with your emotional, mental and spiritual states.
That is what I call ecstasy. That is making love with your life.
How great, how happy, how ecstatic would your life be if you really paid attention to what you desire?
I’m not talking about a new house and getting out of debt. I’m talking about feeling alive and savoring the sensations of the moment.
You’ll be a better person if you care for yourself – happier with yourself and your world. From there, you naturally spread the love to others. Infect them with joy. Show them a vision of ecstasy. Still a responsible citizen, and living a life a ecstasy? Is it possible? I think it is.
