What’s the easy secret to a long and healthy life? The answer is pleasure.
Life is challenging. The obstacles that we encounter make it even more important to learn how to enjoy it and derive pleasure from it. Sigmund Freud’s “pleasure principle” discusses how humans make decisions to seek pleasure and minimize pain. It is one of the most important and revolutionary of Freud’s theories of psychology and human mental development. It explains why people, particularly infants and young children, often follow their urges for pleasure in order to satisfy their unconscious psychological and biological drives.
According to Freud, the id (the primitive & animalistic element of the mind) controls our behavior and pushes us to satisfy our desires for immediate pleasure and gratification during childhood. He noticed how children seek immediate gratification of their desires either directly by eating, drinking, hallucination and fantasy. Freud believed the pleasure principle unconsciously drove children to meet their basic needs for survival. Whereas, the reality principle opposes many of these points and insists on denying them altogether or postponing gratification until a time that is socially appropriate or so that a greater pleasure may be achieved in the long run. This is more along the lines of how most adults function.
When people are stressed, they often turn to pleasurable activities to help them unwind. We may think of this ‘escape’ as unhealthy, especially when it involves risky behaviors. However, research (2010) from the University of Cincinnati shows that pleasurable activities such as food or sex actually reduce stress through brain pathways by inhibiting anxiety responses in the brain. The research showed that even small amounts of tasty food could reduce stress for a week!
This highlights why we seek out pleasurable activities during stressful times. Thus, we should engage in these pleasurable activities in moderation in order to reduce and prevent stress. This is also true of activities that we may not think of as enjoyable, like exercise. Exercise reduces stress effectively and is pleasurable for the body, even if we mentally don’t think of it that way.
This is especially true now that summer is officially over, the school year has started, the weather is getting colder, flu season is approaching, and the holidays are coming up. Be sure to be conscious of the challenges in your life and don’t forget to set aside some time for pleasure!
It will help you to relieve the stress and make you healthier and happier in the long run.
P: Prioritize your health
L: Let yourself take a break
E: Exercise as often as you can
A: Acknowledge all you hard work and effort
S: Schedule time for things you enjoy
U: Use your sick and personal days
R: Relax and restore your mind and body
E: Enjoy the little things
To learn more, visit www.draldencass.com or call Dr. Cass directly at 646-202-9611.
DASHA® Enterprises, LLC works with independent practices and servicing providers that offer an integrated holistic solution to reach your total body well-being. Our client providers share our philosophy of total body health and work with us to bring you an all-inclusive experience.
DASHA® is a luxury lifestyle brand and New York City-based wellness center created to offer a truly holistic approach to wellness. To learn more, visit dashawellness.com.
