If I had to describe May in one word, it would certainly be pleasant.

May is just such a pleasure to witness every year (one reason why it is one of my favorite months of the year!) which makes this a marvelous month to focus on growing your joy-feeling of pleasantness!

Keep reading to learn more about May’s pleasure and some suggestions to invite more pleasure into your life this month (and all year long)!

Definitions of Joy

One of the books that serves as a pillar for this space is The Book of Joy written by His Holiness the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Douglas Abrams.

This book chronicles a meeting between the Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu where the two are interviewed by Abrams regarding the subject of joy.

One of the biggest takeaways from this book and their meeting was just how complex the feeling of joy is. Joy, according to a study published within the book, is actually made up of a bunch of different feelings!

These include:

-Wonder

-Spiritual Radiance

-Amusement

-Contentment

-and Pleasure

For the month of May, we are going to focus on pleasure!

What’s Pleasure, Really?

Like most of the words that have been focused upon in this series, pleasure/pleasantness is a word that we hear all the time.

However, I feel that it is so important to get a formal definition for these words in order to really break down what these words mean and how they relate to joy!

For pleasure, Webster’s Dictionary defines the word as, “a source of delight or joy.”

According to Collins Dictionary, the noun of pleasure can be defined as, “if something gives you pleasure, you get a feeling of happiness, satisfaction, or enjoyment from it.”

Pleasure is simply anything that allows you to feel like you are enjoying life!

Why Focus on Pleasure in May?

As I said at the start of this post—if there is any word that I could use to sum up the month of May, it would be pleasantness/pleasure.

The warmer weather, the sunshine, the flowers in bloom, experiencing the late springtime, a promise of summertime ahead, school-year activities coming to an end—all of it combine to make this month full of pleasantness!

A big part of why this month is such a great one to focus on growing your feeling of pleasantness is simply the weather.

One thing I talked about in my post on 10 joyful things for the month of May is how this month just brings out the smiles in people. Ever look around on a warm spring day and see how lifted people’s moods are: people are smiling, saying hello to strangers, and just in an overall wonderful mood? That, to me, is why May is a great month to grow the feeling of pleasantness in your life—it’s already innately there!

How to Add Some Pleasure to Your Life

Since pleasure can be defined as doing something that gives you enjoyment, that means there are a lot of different ways to add more pleasure into your life. Here are a few ideas to try out this month!

1.) Have a Tea Party: Remember when you were little—or have interacted with a little one—and you loved to host a tea party? Perhaps you got out the little kiddie teaset, filled it with water and packed your stuffed animals around a table to host your tea party like me! Tea parties are so much fun and truly have an essence of enjoyment when you get to attend one. According to Sen Sshitsu VX, “A cup of tea is a cup of peace.” With May’s beautiful weather, it makes it a great time to host a tea party outside. Put on some nice clothes, brew some tea, decorate a table, invite some family and friends over, and feel the joy of getting to gather together over tea under May’s marvelous weather!

2.) Schedule in Hobbies: One thing that I feel often gets overlooked in planning out our daily lives is scheduling time for our hobbies. Hobbies are so important in making sure we are balancing our time with things that are enjoyable or pleasant to us. If you have a hobby that you do every once in a while—see if you can plan on doing it more. If you have a hobby that you used to love to do, but haven’t in a while, see if you can pick it up again!

3.) Try Out New Hobbies: We are ever-growing BE-ings, so it’s important to keep expanding and learning. One way to do this is through trying out new hobbies. Is there anything that you have always wanted to pick up as a hobby—give it a try! If you are struggling to think of a hobby, think back to when you were little, what was something that you just loved to do/ were fascinated by? If you want some inspiration, check out this list: 101 HOBBIES TO START IN 2023 – LISTED BY TYPES OF HOBBIES

4.) Go For A Walk: One of my favorite things to do—and reminds me of the pleasantness of life— is going for a walk. It’s truly amazing how if I am feeling a little bit off, going for a walk shifts my whole day. Walking grounds me, it connects me back to intuition if I’m feeling disconnected, and it truly gives me such enjoyment. If you want an instant boost of pleasantness/pleasure, try going for a walk and really truly being in the Now moment when you do so!

5.) Practice Springtime Hygge: I feel like hygge is the epitome of pleasure! I’ve written about hygge several times in this space— and will continue to do so! Here’s how denmark.dk, describes this Danish term: “In brief, hygge is about taking time away from the daily rush to be together with people you care about – or even by yourself – to relax and enjoy life’s quieter pleasures.” Here are some springtime hygge ideas to increase your feeling of plesantness: 31 The BEST Spring Hygge IDEAS!

6.) Go with the Flow: One of my favorite ways to travel is to not have a rigid schedule. I always notice how the days on vacation when there aren’t really any plans, or very few, it leaves room to just go with the flow, and these days—looking back— were always a day of immense enjoyment/pleasure. Unplanned days led to wonderful memories and lots of fun. This is a concept that Bella Lively has talked a lot about on The Lively Show! We don’t need to wait to go on vacation to experience this going with flow— you can add more flow to your everyday life this month! Check out this interesting piece on Headspace all about the flow state: What is a flow state and what are its benefits?

What is pleasant about May to you? Comment below!