Tending the Temple: Intuitive & Sensual Nervous System Care || By Bre Smith, LPCC
One frigid winter day I found myself soaking in a delicious hot bath. The lights were off and only a pine scented candle’s flame danced across the bathroom walls. I took a deep inhale, filling my lungs with warm air and my nostrils with the smell of sweet pine and yummy orange. I felt the seductive heat from the oily, salty water from where I had dumped two whole handfuls of coconut oil and just a little more epsom salt than I really needed. Boy, do I love oil! Few things make me feel as luscious and delightful as oil on my skin.
I am inspired and enticed and bolstered by Adrienne Maree Brown’s work collected in the book Pleasure Activism: The Politics of Feeling Good. What if we followed the wisdom and delight of our body? This lighthouse of our life.
Intuitive Nervous System Care
A way in to connection with our intuition is through mindfulness and breath. It can be pausing, bringing attention inward, and taking three rounds of slow, long breaths. A slow dance with your breath–you can take as long as you like (there is plenty of time). Maybe notice what feels intriguing, interesting, nice, or like a sigh of relief. This can look like laying down, taking some sips of water, or going for a walk beneath the sun or moon, or dancing feverishly stomping with demands for your life. Following that quiet or loud knowing inside rather than the shoulds or shouldn’ts of chaos around you. (What do they know about your inner universe anyway? hehe) To follow the intelligence of your system with reverence and devotion.
Sensual Nervous System Care
Sensual nervous system care can feel like following what lights up and indulges your senses. Like the love of your life! That scrumptious feeling from your curled toes to your buzzing head with the cozy blanket touching your soft skin. That combo of just the right tastes to delight your tastebuds and your wild mind. That pair of socks or that shirt or that hat that you just can’t help but stare at your cute self in every reflection you come across. Mmm! That electrifying immersion in the icy mountain lake. That damp earth beneath your body and the gorgeous sun overhead. What if the world around you was for you? The birds singing your praises. The rocks begging to bolster you. The trees dying to dance with you. Your body yearning to romance you with the deepest love.
May you hold yourself with sweetness.
May you delight in yourself with tenderness.
May you see yourself in your holiness.
May you dance with yourself in joy.
About the Author: Bre Smith (she/they) is a mental health counselor, educator, artist, and writer with a background in psychology and community-based care. Their work centers on trauma-informed, somatic, and ecofeminist approaches to healing, with a focus on nervous system regulation, identity, and relational well-being. Through their writing, Breezy aims to demystify mental health and support more humane, accessible approaches to healing—both inside and outside the therapy room.
