Your Permission Slip [Registration closes tonight]
How another woman's permission giving led me back to my yes.
Sex and Style is written by Somatic Sex Coach Sarah Ward. This is intended as general advice. If you’d like a personalized guidance, I’d be honored to connect with you in a discovery session.
It’s the summer of 2019. I’m sitting in my hallway in Seattle, on the precipice of a new chapter. Next to me is my energy teacher and mentor. I’m yearning to say yes to more: to say yes to what I’ve been wanting, which is to leave Seattle. To have new experiences. To deeply inhabit this body.
And feeling sooo stuck.
I can almost taste what’s next, and the yes just won’t materialize.
Maybe you can relate. Have you ever wanted something so bad and not been able to give yourself permission to have it? How have you found your yes?
If you’ve been following my journey for a while, you’ve gotten a glimpse of the long arc. Being born and raised in an ultra conservative faith, I carried sexual shame and shut-down around for years. I didn’t have access to my yes, no matter how much I wanted it. For fuck’s sake, I couldn’t even show my shoulders in public. The yes was somewhere out there. Along with my locus of power.
In the thick of things, I wandered around for a long time in the dark, not knowing who or how to talk about it. Especially in the early years, I didn’t have a safe, sensually embodied woman to show me what was possible. I only saw the saint and the slut, nothing in between. Nowhere was there mention of sacred sexuality. The closest I could find to embodiment was my flamenco practice.
If you are reading this now, let me be evidence of what is possible:
From shame and shut down to sensual surrender.
Can I want more?
yes.
Can I have more?
yes.
When you have more and can hold it in an integrated way, it increases your ability to receive more. What you give attention to expands.
Is there more pleasure you’re leaving on the table?
Spoiler: yes.
Can you learn to expand your capacity for more?
Fuck yeah.
Rewind to the summer of 2019, sitting in my hallway with my friend and mentor. She sat with me in my stuck-ness, and saw a way out for me. She intuitively guided me through a ritual on the spot.
With her guidance, I loosened the ties to the patriarchy and drew my power and permission back into my body. It sounds so simple. The stuckness I had carried for so long fell away. Suddenly I was the sovereign of my life. (And I realized I always had been.) Everything changed. And nothing changed.
That’s what The Pleasure Collective is all about. It’s permission giving at its finest.
(In case you’re wondering, “What’s The Pleasure Collective?”)
This women’s group is dedicated to sensual embodiment and will meet one Sunday a month near the light of the full moon from 5-7pm PST / 8-10pm EST. Each month we’ll serve up a different topic, that will build on the last.
Sunday, January 28: Loving What Is
Sunday, February 25: Pleasure as Medicine
Sunday, March 24: Embodiment and Tantra
Sunday, April 28: Navigating Desire
Sunday, May 19: Stress and Desire
Sunday, June 23: The Big O | Orgasm Exploration
Gathering across six months will allow us to deeply metabolize, integrate, and transform.
So. If you find yourself craving more, feeling like you’re capable of more, but mot sure the next steps—allow me to write you a permission slip.
Better yet, let’s write it together.
Registration ends at 11:59pm on Saturday, January 27. Please reply with any questions.
Sex and Style is written by Certified Somatic Sex and Relationship Coach and Wardrobe Stylist, Sarah Ward. She has spent the last 20 years studying human sexuality and minted it in 2021, certifying in the VITA™ Methodology with Layla Martin and as an Erotic Blueprints™ Coach with Jaiya. For personalized support, schedule a free discovery call with Sarah.
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I have choices. That's the key for me. I realized that consciously about 3 years ago when I found myself repeating a pattern of behavior and seeing it very clearly for the first time. I'd been doing the same thing for 50 years. And I thought, "oh fuck no, not again..."
I changed my life, making conscious choices and I Iike where I am. In essence, I gave myself permission to be awake and aware. I've never looked back. 🤗
I read this earlier today, and a few hours later I’m still thinking about it. Mostly because this is my MAIN issue as a person. 👺 Thanks, Sarah. This is oddly serendipitous and helpful. (I’m def mulling over joining this lovely community your organising too!)