Writing your Pleasure List
1. Take a clean sheet of paper and head somewhere you feel safe and relaxed.
2. Divide the paper into four sections:
– Section 01: People and Pets (who bring me pleasure when I think of them)
– Section 02: Places (that bring me pleasure when I think of them)
– Section 03: Things (that bring me pleasure when I think of them)
– Section 04: Things I like to do (that bring me pleasure)3. Then write as many examples as you can under each section.
4. Remember to allow yourself to feel happy!Section 01: People and Pets
- Xan, my husband.
- Beast, my son
- Dill, my friend
- Zen, my cat that passed on last year
- Rees, my friend.
- Ruby, my friend
- Carla, my friend
- Monday, my friend
- My MIL
- My FIL
Section 02: Places
- Myrtle Beach, South Carolina: It is absolutely, hands down, my favorite vacation spot. The beaches are huge and
sandy. The local, southern food is amazing, and the local people are very friendly. I have some of my most fond memories there. When I was sixteen, it was my first taste of freedom. It was the only town I was ever allowed to wander around in unsupervised. I was free to go wherever I wanted within a certain 15 block radius in either direction. For Myrtle Beach, that’s a lot of territory. I spent my honeymoon there with Xan. It was the first time I had ever gone on vacation as an adult. We just had the most lovely time, I recall. Good food, peaceful setting, and a lovely beach. I got to wake up every single morning to go out on the patio and watch the sunrise. It was magical.
- Virginia Beach, Virginia: I recall Virginia Beach having one of the most impressive boardwalks I had ever been on. Anything you could ever want was on that board walk. I was thirteen years old, and I’d sneak out to my very own balcony in the middle of the night just to watch the moon rise on the ocean. It was one of the most beautiful sights I had ever seen. It was fairly close by car, so I wasn’t stuck in the car forever with my parents. And, since I had my own room in our suite, I had a huge amount of privacy. It was the best vacation I can remember from my childhood.
- The Fountains in Pittsburgh: There’s something about those fountains. Pittsburgh has plenty of them, because we
are so close to the river. There was one in particular that I loved, and I took a photo of it right before my surgical consultation the August before last. Something about it was calming, and settled me down to think about the beautiful things in life. I even wrote a post called, “All the Pretty Things”.
- The Trestle: By my old house, in the same neighborhood I grew up in, there was this old, abandoned railroad trestle. My best friend showed it to me when we were in our early teens. We used to hang out there to drink and smoke pot. Then, we’d have these deep conversations about our thoughts and feelings. Those were very intimate moments.When Beck, my ex, and I became secret lovers behind her back, we used to frequent the trestle. It was the place that I had my first kiss with a boy. And he and I would sit there for hours, holding each other, talking about our dreams, and making plans for our future together. And after Beck and I broke up, I didn’t go back again.
Until there was Xan, three years later. At the time, we were living with my ex, Avi. I felt a bond with Xan that I couldn’t
quite explain. So, I took him there, so that we could be alone. We hung out and we drank. It was a beautiful alone place, even if it was a rusted trestle. You could see the creek below, and it was surrounded by trees, a rarity in that neighborhood.
It was the place where Xan and I spent our first night together as a couple. We sat up all night and talked. I don’t recall what about. The past. The present. Maybe even the future. I know we went through the story of our developing relationship, and how we got to this point. And I remember we held each other in the rain until the morning light.
Section 03: Things:
- My computer
- My Samsung Captivate Glide
- Pandora
- My stuffed animal from when I was a kid
- Coffee
- Pizza
- New clothes
- Cigarettes
- Overhead Lighting
- WordPress
- Bejeweled Blitz
- Bed
- My blue coffee cup
- My brown skirt
- The Internet
- Wikipedia
- WebMD
- Medscape
- Craigslist
- My blue blanket
- My journals
- Inkjoy pens
- G2 Gel Pens
- All no bleed Sharpies
- Office supplies
- Caffeine
- My medication
- My contacts
Section 04: Things I like to do:
- Go for long car rides
- Eat at this little mom and pop diner a few towns over
- Shop
- Get dressed up (sometimes)
- Take hot showers
- Visit my in-laws
- Craft
- Take on a new project
- Crochet
- Write
- Read
- Write on WordPress
- Read on WordPress
- Do selfless acts
- Practice Tang Soo Do
- Play computer games
- Watch my favorite TV shows
- Create things
- Play with my son
- Spend time with my husband
“Pleasure is the only thing one should live for, nothing ages like happiness.”
~ Oscar Wilde ~
Accentuate the positives
The first exercise toward building better self-esteem is to focus on the positives. Now, I’m not a convert into the positive thinking movement, in fact I find books that proclaim all we need to do is think positively and everything we want will magically appear out of thin air complete crap. I don’t believe someone can ‘pretend away depression’ nor do I believe thinking positively will cure you of cancer or the myriad of other illnesses that people suffer from.
However, thinking positive thoughts about ourselves can bring about an attitude change toward better self-perception.
Once upon a time I was in a counselling session. I had seen this counsellor for several sessions and in each one he noted how stressed and tense I was; how I sat in a…
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in my home. I 
Sunny With a Chance Of Armageddon 
