There is a distinct difference between pleasure and distraction.

Yesterday I had the rare opportunity of a free day off and I decided to spend it in complete indulgence! I watched movies, I surfed online, I gossiped with friends, I shopped, I napped, I ate all manner of carbs... I basically covered every vice available in my house. And it was great!

I also went on a little adventure down to the lake where I suddenly decided to go for a swim (on private property and in my underwear no less, but actually it was the temperature of the water that was the adventurous part!) And there I floated, in the middle of an empty lake with the sun on my face and nothing but the birds to listen to for about an eternity...

Can you guess which activity of yesterday has remained with me and kept me smiling today? I'll give you a hint, it wasn't the carbs.

The things that give us pleasure will be entirely different from person to person, but they are only pleasurable if they are done with consciousness. For us in the western world, life seems to be built around the pursuit of pleasure, that is what everyone s looking for, Happiness. And yet we are not generally happy. Instead we seem caught in a desperate fight to feed our senses because they never seem satisfied enough.That is not pleasure, it is distraction. Real pleasure takes time to be enjoyed and the awareness of both the body and the soul. You will recognize it by the way that it makes your mind quieter inside and the way that it continues to give you joy even years afterwards, because real pleasure grows... In fact it even spreads to others around you...

So I ask you today: what gives you pleasure?