50 ways to play with yourself

50 ways to play with yourself

Isolation to Indulgence

Escape your mind. Return to your body. Rediscover pleasure through play.

In a world of constant multitasking, our senses often blur together into noise. But when we isolate and indulge each sense, we can awaken desire, deepen presence, and find new avenues to awaken pleasure.

tldr; 

  • Skip to the table for easy practices to return to your body 
  • Learn why it works with evidence-based research and methods

☼ Return to your Body. Feel Alive. 

These practices of play turns on your senses through hyper-focus and reconnecting with natural rhythms of the earth. We are melting away the outside world to concentrate your context. 

Sense Low Effort – Medium Impact Medium Effort – High Impact
Sight

 

  • Trace the curves of your finger prints with your eyes, how to the patterns differ

  • Watch a candle flicker

  • Sit in dappled light (sun filtering through trees) for 5 minutes
  • Compare flower petals in a bouquet

  • Watch someone dance or stretch mindfully
  • Read a printed book (maybe something smutty)

  • Make 60 seconds of uninterrupted eye contact

  • Redesign your space with ground level lighting

  • Change the textures in your home to be cohesive and tactile

  • Find an intricate piece of wall art uncover three emotions you feel
Sound
  • Steal a playlist (ambient, soulful, or the crackle of a record)

  • Tune into ambient sounds (like wind, rain, rustling leaves) 

  • Speak softly

  • Hum for a minute (feel the vibration in your chest and throat)

  • Turn on 432 hertz (Hz) frequency
  • Listen to the wind from your breath for 5-minutes

  • Isolate one instrument in a song

  • Read poetry aloud

  • Attend a concert and feel the music overtake your body

  • Add wind and or water chimes to your home
Touch
  • Glide silk or buttery soft cotton across your skin

  • Walk slowly with bare feet on warm or cool earth 

  • Lay a steamy warm wash cloth across your face
  • Brush your hair for 5 minutes

  • Apply gentle pressure, like with a weighted blanket
  • Oil massage your own hands, feet, thighs, or belly 

  • Change your bed sheets to silky satin sheets

  • Use sensory tools on erogenous zones

  • Scan your body by mindfully track sensations head to toe, moving to a new body part with each breath 

  • Practice gua sha
Taste
  • Spend 5 minutes savoring a single ingredient, like a strawberry, mango, or chocolate

  • Mindfully warm sip lemon, ginger, mint or orange tea

  • Eat a meal without technology (phone or tv)

  • Sip a mocktail with your mouth open (this enhances flavors)

  • Try a new glass of wine and list 5 flavors you discover
  • Weave in each of the 5 taste elements to meals (sweet, salty, sour, bitter, and umami)

  • Make a cocktail or mocktail with more than 3 ingredients 

  • Recreate food memories, eat something your parents or grandparents would make

  • Grow and harvest herbs

  • Book reservations for a fine dining tasting menu 
Smell
  • Dab essential oil or place a few drops in a steamy shower

  • Soak in the scent of clean laundry or towels

  • Fill your home with natural floral scents (like lilies or lilacs)

  • Drop a lemon down your sink's disposal

  • Reheat bread or baked goods in your oven
  • Notice the earth, pause to smell pre- or post-rain, fresh cut grass, or sun soaked tomato plants 

  • Fill your home with the scent of homemade bread, Sunday sauce, or another aromatic meal

  • Hire someone to deep-clean your home

  • Tend to a peace lily, snake plant, spider plant, or English ivy to detoxify your home's air

  • Deep clean musty zones, like the shoe closet, litterbox, garage

✖ Common Misinterpretations

Turning on the senses isn't about intensity—it's about hyper focus. When you narrow in your world, you make it easier to escape your mind and return to your body.

Turning-on, does not mean overstimulating. We do NOT recommend:

  • "Turning-on" without "turning-off" first—part of hyper focusing is limiting other stimuli and factors. Try isolating your senses, like closing your eyes as you savor a piece of chocolate. Discover more ways to turn off overstimulation.

  • 0-60 mph—as you begin to hyper focus your senses, start small. Similar to tasting spicy food, you want to observe and reflect with subtle spice before you kill your palate with intensity. Breaking down your senses into basic blocks, then gradually adding intensity can deepen your pleasure and the ability each exercise has at pulling you out of your head. 

As you activate your senses, look for changes in your body. 

᭡ Modern-Science Supports Ancient Practices

When your brain is overstimulated—bombarded by sounds, lights, movement, and information—it signals a threat response, often triggering the sympathetic nervous system (the fight-or-flight state). But when you intentionally focus on just one sensory input—like the sound of your breath, the feeling of fabric on your skin, or the scent of your tea—you’re telling your brain: “We’re safe. We’re here.”

This is bottom-up regulation in action. Instead of trying to talk yourself out of stress, you’re using the body to speak directly to the brain.

Focused sensory attention calms the amygdala (the brain's threat detector), reactivates the prefrontal cortex (your reasoning center), and stimulates the vagus nerve, which is the major pathway for shifting into the parasympathetic state—rest, digest, and restore.

Porges SW. Polyvagal Theory: A Science of Safety. Front Integr Neurosci. 2022 May 10;16:871227. doi: 10.3389/fnint.2022.871227. PMID: 35645742; PMCID: PMC9131189.

⊹ Final Thoughts

Tuning into your senses helps awaken your awareness and presence. These practices connect you to your body, your environment, and your internal world. Use this as a prelude to pleasure, intimacy, rest—or simply to feel alive.

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