Season 3 of the Pleasure Lab podcast: The 3rd Chakra
In this fourth full episode of Season 3, Amy and Alex talk about the 3rd Chakra (the Solar Plexus). This is the potency center, where the question is “Can I be me?” yet the words and drawings that emerged are wacky. We can’t wait to see how colorists bring this page to life (you can download it here). Amy and Alex deep dive into the back story and then connect this chakra to the “4th Chapter”. This is the final section of the book that only emerged after the 2016 elections as we wrestled whether or not a coloring book was trivial in the face of all this tumult. We stake a claim to coloring as a pathway to embodiment which is the fundamental tool of empathy. And that’s what we need.
You can get your own copy of the Wonder Body Coloring Book! – http://wonderbody.us
Plus here’s your downloadable page for this episode, so you can color along with us.
Author: Amy Butcher
Season 3 of the Pleasure Lab podcast: The Sense of Taste
In this third full episode of Season 3, Amy and Alex talk about the sense of Taste. One of the big 5 sense, we often take this one for granted. But what is taste and what are the 5 types we can sense. Are you a super taster? Some experiments for you to try at home about taste and the pleasures of going slow and subtle.
Resources mentioned:
- Wonder Body Coloring Book! – http://wonderbody.us
Plus here’s your downloadable page for this episode, so you can color along with us.
Thanks to the folks on Patreon who are supporting this podcast and all of Body Trust’s other work! Go visit Patreon and become a patreon yourself to support the free podcasts, newsletters, and resources that we create for you.
Music: Grateful to Little Dog Big Ears for their Creative Commons licensed music She Sees Mice (intro and outro). Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or Sticher. And give us a 5-star review in iTunes, it helps us reach more beloved explorers.
xo,
Amy & Alex
Categories
Report from the field of combustion
Smoke from the fires is what we hear on the news. According to the agency monitoring Washington State air quality, the last four days Seattle has had “Unhealthy” air quality. A step away from “Hazardous.” This comes with a recommendation to stay indoors, close all windows, and use an air conditioner (who has one of these in Seattle?). It is also recommended to refrain from strenuous activity outside for people and dogs.
Here is the laboratory: confinement, heat, energy, plenty of vegetables, water, art supplies, two humans, and two dogs.
This is a perfect setting for experimenting with pleasure.
“There is power in pleasure. Pleasure can balance, restore, and transform us. It can change us physically, energetically and emotionally. Our bodies are designed for pleasure.”
– From Wonder Body: A Sophisticated Coloring Book for Curious Adults
Moving through emotions of anxiety, fear, joy, frustration, and ease—we wore pajamas all day, we drank ice tea, made homemade dog treats that included zucchini from the garden, groomed, painted, and painted some more. This bizarre daylight with the red sun created unique shadows and changed the color on the canvas. We sang loudly, watched musicals. I don’t know what will be next but we have pinpoint focus on our next breath.
We are trying to make sense of the unrecognizable sun. Every living being is being affected by the smoke.
We are cooked, creative, in an altered state from the containment.
How are you?
xo,
Alex
Season 3 of the Pleasure Lab podcast: The Sense of Proprioception
In this second full episode of Season 3, Amy and Alex talk about the sense of Proprioception. How do you know where your body is in space, in relation to the ground, to your nose. They discuss the sense, some of the hidden gems behind the drawing, as well as some ‘try this at home’ exercises to help you feel into the erotic potential of the sense of proprioception.
Resources mentioned:
- Wonder Body Coloring Book! – http://wonderbody.us
Plus here’s your downloadable page for this episode, so you can color along with us.
Thanks to the folks on Patreon who are supporting this podcast and all of Body Trust’s other work! Go visit Patreon and become a patreon yourself to support the free podcasts, newsletters, and resources that we create for you.
Music: Grateful to Little Dog Big Ears for their Creative Commons licensed music She Sees Mice (intro and outro). Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or Sticher. And give us a 5-star review in iTunes, it helps us reach more beloved explorers.
xo,
Amy & Alex
Categories
Components of Combustion
Components of combustion
What does it take to safely light things up?
com·bus·tion – kəmˈbəsCH(ə)n/
noun
noun
- an act or instance of burning
- a usually rapid chemical process (such as oxidation) that produces heat and usually light ; also : a slower oxidation (as in the body)
- violent agitation – tumult
This summer’s wildfires—in California, across the west, in Europe, and even the arctic circle—have ignited needing only three components: air, fuel, and spark. They spread a visceral and primoridal fear as they destroy land, lives, and threaten the air we breathe. Yet they also bring life, unleashing the potency of serotinous cones that open in the heat.
It’s hard to imagine, but in a few months I might be grateful to curl up next to the contained heat of a wood fire: burning brightly but contained by hearth, dangerous carbon monoxide and other byproducts carried safely up the flue. This combustion is ancient and I am grateful to the inventions that make it safe.
I’m on a long drive right now, relying on the internal combustion of my car’s engine. Back in the day, when automobile engine’s were simpler, a balky engine could be diagnosed by checking the four fundamental components: air, fuel, compression, spark. All four were necessary for the smooth running of an engine which is really a series of small repetitive explosions safely contained by the strong metal of the engine block. Remarkabley, all four continue to be present in the right proportions for mile after mile. Small wonder!
And just a few week’s ago, I was in the desert heat at our Portals of Pleasure retreat, witnessing with wonder the process by which humans could combust, burn off the residue, ignite change—all while anchoring deeply, tethering themselves lest their heat rise too quickly.
Heat. Combustion. Potency. Big powers to play with this August. But so much potency too.
Looking forward to hearing what Alex and Zed are firing up this month.
xo,
Amy
Categories
Rise and Shine
I spent some weeks in British Columbia earlier this month and, as result, been thinking alot about bread. They eat ‘alot’ of it here, or at least ‘alot’ by my standards. Now mind you, I love bread. Anyone who knows me knows I will probably ask for an onion bagel on my deathbed. But lately I’ve been trying to eat more veggies and legumes, and less bread. So I’d lost touch, sort of, with the magic of this material.
What I’m noticing is the complexity of the very matter that is bread. The way it has tenacity, wants to cling to its bread-like form despite being filled with holes and spaces.
I’m noticing the way tearing away a piece leaves as many crumbs outside my mouth–on my lap, my laptop, my floor–as it does crumbs and chunks inside my lips.
I’m noticing the holes, the tiny little portals carved out by the complexity of the relationship of flour and water and yeast, how they danced together in the baking, how they worked together to leave behind this holy thing for my sustenance.
I’m reminded of the ways we dance with others, sometimes creating resilient structures together, sometimes only leaving behind the echoing holes.
I’m in awe of these holes.
And grateful for them too.
xo,
Amy
Season 3 of the Pleasure Lab podcast: The origin story
In this first full episode of Season 3, Amy and Alex talk about the Wonder Body coloring book. They explore how it came into being (hint: it’s connected to mind-blowing sex, or not), what they learned, what were the surprise additions, and what got left on the cutting room floor.
Resources mentioned:
- Wonder Body Coloring Book! – http://wonderbody.us
- Robert Lawrence and the Center for Sex & Culture in San Francisco
- The sensor map known as the Homunculus
Plus here’s your downloadable page for this episode, so you can color along with us.
Thanks to the folks on Patreon who are supporting this podcast and all of Body Trust’s other work! Go visit Patreon and become a patreon yourself to support the free podcasts, newsletters, and resources that we create for you.
Music: Grateful to Little Dog Big Ears for their Creative Commons licensed music She Sees Mice (intro and outro). Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or Sticher. And give us a 5-star review in iTunes, it helps us reach more beloved explorers.
xo,
Amy & Alex
Join Amy and Alex for an all new Season 3 of the Pleasure Lab podcast, starting in July.
We’ve even got a little teaser for you in this short bridge episode of the Pleasure Lab.
While Season 1 was Zed and Amy in wacky conversation, and Season 2 was interviews with leaders and innovators in the field of embodiment, Season 3 will focus on Wonder Body: A Sophisticated Coloring Book for Curious Adults. Each episode will be a dive deep into one of the concept in the book: a sense, an energy, or a pleasure. We will link downloadable pages with each episode so you can color along as you listen. Not only will Amy and Alex describe what’s in the book, but they’ll also reveal the untold stories and surprises behind each spread of poetic words and whimsical images.
Won’t you join us?
Thanks to the folks on Patreon who are supporting this podcast and all of Body Trust’s other work! Go visit patreon.com/bodytrust and become a patreon yourself to support the free podcasts, newsletters, and resources that we create for you.
Music: Grateful to Little Dog Big Ears for their Creative Commons licensed music She Sees Mice (intro and outro). Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or Sticher. And give us a 5-star review in iTunes, it helps us reach more beloved explorers.
Categories
the tender beauty
To me, spring seems ebullient but also fragile. This poem captured that sensation for me.
Enjoy,
Amy
Form & Void
For him [the autistic child], everything is form.
—Jane Kessler
Glory be to God for dappled things…
All things counter, original, spare, strange….
—Gerard Manley Hopkins
The boy is blowing bubbles
with his mother, shimmering orbs
that glitter and dance
on the face of the lawn.
He prances after them, staring
with the deep mirror of his eyes
as they pop and disappear.
Flapping his arms, he chases them
toward the garden cosmos,
their mauve and lilac gowns
of silk voile waltzing
in the breeze.
He orbits around his mother
as she dips in her wand,
produces these baubles
from breath and film.
The glassy bubbles rise in a swirl
of pink and blue, a moment’s iridescence.
This is the only magic the mother can conjure;
she cannot help him talk or say his name.
But they can do this together,
blow bubbles on a breezy afternoon,
make a strand of hand-blown beads
to grace the throat of the lawn.
— Barbara Crooker, author of Selected Poems
dr. liam “captain” snowdon – captain lives uninvited on the territory of the Lekwungen and WSÁNEĆ peoples on Vancouver Island. Their background is in social justice, harm reduction, street outreach, sexological bodywork, performance art and poetry. Captain runs the Sex Positive Art and Recreation Centre in Victoria and co-teaches the Somatic Sex Educator Professional Training. They delight in teaching with the Institute for Sexual Education and Enlightenment, doing outreach for the Anti-Violence Project at the University of Victoria. Currently, captain uses the pronoun they/them, identifies as a genderqueer-queer radical faery-faggot witch, is in love with the ocean and facilitation for liberation, still loving it 30 years and counting.
Somatic Sex Educator Professional Training – https://somaticsexeducator.com/
Institute for Sexual Education and Enlightenment – http://www.instituteforsexuality.com/
Anti-Violence Project at the University of Victoria – https://www.antiviolenceproject.org/
Captain recommends:
Wonder Body Coloring Book! – http://wonderbody.us
Body Electric School – http://www.thebodyelectricschool.com/
River Drosera’s Erotic Arts Project – https://www.theeroticartsproject.com/
Thanks to the folks on Patreon who are supporting this podcast and all of Body Trust’s other work! Go visit patreon.com/bodytrust and become a patreon yourself to support the free podcasts, newsletters, and resources that we create for you.
Music: Grateful to Little Dog Big Ears for their Creative Commons licensed music She Sees Mice (intro and outro). Make sure to subscribe in iTunes or Sticher. And give us a 5-star review in iTunes, it helps us reach more beloved explorers.