Pleasure is a matter of personal taste because we all enjoy different things. Still, it is also an experience we have in common that forms part of the emotional vocabulary of all cultures. A genuinely healthy lifestyle involves embracing pleasure, not rejecting it.
Most people engage in activities that they find pleasurable – such as reading, listening to music, taking holidays, or eating out. Such experiences help people to cope with the stresses of modern life and improve psychological well-being. Five principal categories of activity give us pleasure: things that heighten enjoyment; things that counter stress, anxiety, or depression; social encounters, such as meeting up to play sport; activities that are a regular feature of everyday life that we might look forward to, such as a tea break; and those regulating arousal or mood changes, such as enjoying an alcoholic drink.
Seeking pleasure
The pursuit of pleasure dictates much of what we do in life. We are attracted to things, people, and situations that give us pleasure. For example, we make choices about food and drink primarily for taste rather than nutrition. It is not surprising that the pleasure state is linked with biologically important behavior, such as eating and sexual activity: it is of evolutionary importance that human experiences involving food and sex should produce feelings of pleasure, which will make us more likely to seek out and repeat the experience. (Of course, not all pleasurable acts are biologically important, and not all biologically important acts are directly pleasurable .)
Regulating pleasure
The level of sensory stimulation at which pleasure is at its peak has been called the ‘bliss point’ by the Australian psychologist Robert McBride. Rather than overindulging in a state of bliss, we possess in-built regulatory mechanisms that help us maximize our enjoyment by moderating our consumption of the things we enjoy. These mechanisms should not be confused with conscious and culturally constructed feelings of guilt, which can trigger stress hormones. This self-regulatory ‘pleasure principle’ helps us to sustain a balanced diet and prevents us from excessive consumption of pleasure foods, like chocolate. For such substances to remain highly enjoyable, they must be consumed infrequently as ‘treats ‘ – if the pleasurable event is experienced too often, it becomes repetitive and loses its freshness. Delaying gratification allows for greater expectancy, which enhances the pleasure when it arrives.
Research suggests that feelings of pleasure are caused by the release of endorphins in the brain. Some addictive drugs work by locking on endorphin receptors in the brain, but it is, of course, healthier and safer to get an endorphin rush by means other than drugs. The work of psychologist Robert Ornstein has shown that the happiest and healthiest people are those who take pleasure in even the simplest things.
The strengthening of the body’s immune responses that occur as a result of experiencing pleasure suggests that the enjoyment of life’s small pleasures may have a cumulative effect over a longer period, which benefits health. Even fantasizing about pleasurable things can be useful. Happiness, it seems, really is a state of mind.
The Pleasure Survey
A 1993 survey in the UK asked people to describe the ten things that gave pleasure. The age of respondents ranged from 16 to 92; 74 percent were women, and 26 percent were men. Approximately 36 different categories of pleasure were mentioned. The top-ranked category for men was food and drink, closely followed by music, reading, and family and children. For women, family and children came top, closely followed by food and drink, nature and scenery, entertainment and reading. Love/sex and sports/exercise were mentioned more often by men, and coziness, friends, and home/garden by women. Some of the selected comments from respondents below confirm the idea that pleasure can be derived from the ‘simple things in life.
Food And Drink
‘Learning about wine on a tasting course has increased the pleasure I take in it.’ ‘The foods that give me the most pleasure are porridge for breakfast, crusty bread and strong Cheddar cheese for lunch, a rich bean stew with lots of vegetables and mashed potatoes for dinner, with lemon meringue pie to follow.’
Family and Children
‘First and foremost among the ten things that give me pleasure is opening my front door to my family, who has traveled a distance to see me. To see their welcoming smiles and giving me that first kiss.
‘When my son was a child, we would spend hours reading together, cycling down country lanes, swimming, camping or walking.
Nature and Scenery
‘I love to walk in the woods in the autumn, especially after rain.’ ‘Two pleasures from nature which I cannot explain: the sound of rain falling on a summer garden and the breeze making shot-silk of a tall green field of barley.’ ‘I never cease to marvel at the miracle of life, even the tiniest insect crawling over a leaf.’
Friendship and Solitude
‘The pleasure of close friends is probably the most important pleasure to me. ‘Being on my own after a busy day, to just stop and think, feel the sun, read a book, sing or do absolutely nothing. I find these times an absolute necessity, and they save my sanity when the going is tough.
