Pleasure is an essential function in our system, designed to bring us back to homeostasis. When we feel pleasure, the system is at its most relaxed, and becomes able to restore.
Pleasure is a function, not a luxury
We are designed for pleasure, yet most of our attention goes to suffering and to avoiding pain. Pleasure is built into the system as a way to bring the body back to balance. It is not indulgent. It is part of how the body restores itself.
What happens in the body
Pleasure and touch release oxytocin, the hormone of trust and bonding, along with dopamine and endorphins. At the same time, the stress hormone cortisol comes down. The body shifts out of the sympathetic state, fight or flight, and into the parasympathetic state, the one for rest, digestion and sex. This is the state in which the system can actually repair.
"Pleasure is the best medicine. And it is free."
The fastest route back to balance
Pleasure is the fastest route to homeostasis, which means it is one of the most available tools we have to meet anxiety and stress. The tools to make the system operate well are already in the body. The question is whether we use them.
Try this
A few minutes of restoration
Once a day, take five minutes to bring conscious pleasure and slow breath to the body. It does not need to be sexual. The point is to feel something good on purpose.
Breathe low and slow into the belly. The breath is what signals to the nervous system that it is safe to move into its restore state.
Notice what shifts afterward, in your body and in your mind. You are not adding a treat to your day. You are using a function the body already has.
Science check
Touch and positive contact release oxytocin, which lowers blood pressure and cortisol and shifts the autonomic system from sympathetic to parasympathetic activity. The parasympathetic state is where the body restores.
Oxytocin and the parasympathetic state , Uvnäs-Moberg, K. (1998). Oxytocin may mediate the benefits of positive social interaction and emotions. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 23(8), 819–835.