Guilt and Pleasure

In my Earth study group, we are discussing pleasure—and guilt.

First let me define pleasure in such a way that it makes sense in the context of the Earth element specifically. Pleasure is here defined as enjoyment that slows the pulse rate and causes us to linger and lengthen the moment. It is not the same as excitement or thrills—which raise the pulse rate and heighten—rather than lengthen—the moment. Earth pleasure is not a dopamine chase; it’s serotonin satisfaction.

We have been discussing the nutritional benefits of pleasure. In Chinese medicine, nutrition is half food, and half digestion. It’s not just about what you eat; it’s about how you digest it. Pleasure is an important part of the digestive process; it will change your enzyme secretion patterns, and aid nutrient absorption. Literally, it strengthens the digestive system to eat what we find delicious.

Our food is not only physical; it’s our life experience. How delicious is our life? If the answer is, “Actually it’s way more work than pleasure,” that’s an Earth imbalance, and it’s time to start enjoying more. Are we still capable of pausing to enjoy the color of the sky, the look in a friend’s eyes, the softness of a clean t-shirt. We don’t need exotic or expensive pleasures; we do need to allow ourselves to savor what is available. This means that we may need to attune our Earth element even to notice the opportunities for pleasure in our lives.

Another crucial Earth ingredient in healthy pleasure and a heathy digestive system is pacing. What is the speed of satisfaction? Are you missing out on enjoyment of all the simple pleasures that are possible in your life just because you never slow down enough to taste the sweetness of small ordinary moments?

Leptin resistance is epidemic these days. In 2011, 1 in 3 people in the USA (37.6%) had metabolic syndrome, a diabetes precursor state in which we are not only increasingly insulin resistant, but also leptin resistant. Leptin is the hormone that allows us to feel fullness and satisfaction. This means that in 2011, one third of the population was measurably satisfaction-resistant. (https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36906842/)

By 2018, prevalence rose to 41.8%. That means almost half the population was experiencing satisfaction resistance. Next came the pandemic—what do you suspect happened over that time? What’s happening now? In order to rebuild our Earth element enough to be able to digest our own lives, let alone what is happening on the news, we need nourishment! We need to re-learn to enjoy the simple things, and slow down enough to take it in.

This is especially crucial at a time when there is so much happening in the world and in the news that is horrifying, and seemingly indigestible. How do we cope? How can we even begin thinking about the world ecosystem in which we participate?

In this context, the rehabilitation of our digestive capacity is urgent. We need to re-learn to digest, and on an almost emergency basis. Yet for many of us, there is moral and cognitive paralysis and overwhelm instead.

We need pleasure for healthy digestion, healthy Earth. I’m not taking about pleasure at anyone else’s expense. I’m not talking about grabbing more and leaving others with less.

I’m talking about crushing pine needles in your hands, or basil, or sassafras to enjoy the fragrance (CO-20 to ST 1), and to ripen our Earth so that we’re receiving the spoonful of sugar that makes the medicine go down. Particularly when the medicine is bitter, we need the sweetness.

It seems to me that as citizens of a world in tremendous danger and distress, strengthening our Earth element is foundation to our being of any use at all to anyone. Healthy pleasure is not indulgence. It’s nutrition. It’s needed.

I say this because many people feel guilty when they experience pleasure. It feels wrong, selfish, almost like a form of stealing. No question, there are forms of pleasure worth feeling guilty about, e.g., pleasures that steal much-needed resources from others.

But the enjoyment of the wet grass under your bare feet after the rain, on a lovely August day? The spontaneous gratitude of the body for the flavor of a vine-ripened tomato?

Much of the confusion here is due to the utter havoc created for our Earth element by the food industry. “Foods” have been created and marketed to us with no nutritional merit whatsoever. Eating simply for pleasure has become a mass trend, and the natural connection between nourishment and pleasure has been perverted with carefully calculated laboratory-tested recipes to get us to eat with enjoyment that is not reflective of goodness.

Is this where we learned to distrust pleasure? In the jungle of manufactured food experiences, designed to sell, not to nourish?

The USA was founded by Puritans who associated pleasure with the temptations of the Devil. Nevertheless, our country’s government was founded on the principle of the supposedly inalienable right to “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness,” which principle has unquestionably dominated our marketing strategies since then. How has this distorted our ability to experience the simple pleasure that increases the strength of our digestion, and brings nourishment to the spirit as well as the body? More specifically, how has your Earth element, and your relationship with the healing benefits of wholesome pleasure, been affected?

Most likely it’s not worth spending a lot of time analyzing exactly what went wrong with our Earth element, and why.

Most likely it’s more important to recognize whether something is off—whether we are no longer able to derive from the small simple pleasures in life the strength we need to digest the more difficult matters on our plate—and begin simple soil amendment for our Earth element.

What’s your healthy wholesome pleasure Recommended Daily Allowance? Why not start at 3 simple pleasures a day—nothing you need to buy, just savoring what’s already available in a moment of rest, or a kind word—and see what happens if you slowly increase your intake from there? Let’s see if we can bring that leptin resistance statistic down again, to support the integrity-building process digesting what is sweet—as well as what must be digested down to the molecular level to find what is sweet within it.