Sensing Yourself and Sensing Your Art | The Erotic Arts Project

Greetings, Erotic Explorers!

Today I want to talk to you about sensing yourself, and sensing your art. Here’s what I mean.

The first step on your journey to (re)connecting to your erotic and creative self is learning how to identify and describe sensations in your body. Many people can easily name their emotions, but for most of us, we have less practice exploring and articulating how those emotions actually feel in our bodies.

Examples of emotions are joyful, happy, angry, sad, etc. Sensations, however, go down a step deeper. Where do you feel joy in your body? Can you begin to describe what that joy feels like? By practicing being in tune with these sensations, you’ll feel more connected to your body, your desires, and your pleasures.

Here are some helpful tips:

– Begin by locating where you feel the emotion(s) on or in your body. For example, “I feel joy in my chest and upper back.”

– Next, begin to describe the sensations that are present at the location. You can use words from the list below to help guide you or spark your inspiration.

– You can use your sketchbook or journal to track and record your sensations, if you’d like.

– It’s helpful to know that sometimes when you begin to bring your awareness to your sensations, they can shift and change.

[ Image of black text on a pink and white background. The words describe various sensations: cold, full, electric, expanded, heavy, hot, buzzing, tingly, hard, bubbly, warm, calm, bright, brilliant, small, big, fluttery, stuffed, loose, smooth, warm, congested, hollow, dark, light, fluid, itchy, flowing, sparkly, searing, icy, tight, wobbly ]

What are some other sensation words that you might want to add to this list?

Sometimes our experience of our sensations require more language than just one word. You may find yourself stringing full sentences together.

For example, “It feels like when I’m at the lake on a hot day with my skin all warm and sweaty, and then I dip my feet into the cold water.”

After beginning to explore the sensations you feel in your body, you can also use this same exercise to connect to your art and creative practice.

What does it feel like when you explore your art materials? What does it feel like to touch a basket full of yarns? Your art brushes? Canvas? What are the textures? What’s the temperature? Can you let these sensations guide your creative practice?

This simple and nourishing practice is an accessible way to cultivate a deeper connection to and awareness of your own body, your emotions, your pleasure, and your art practice. I return to it often — and I invite you to make some time for it this week, too. I’d love to hear how it goes.

Warmly,

River