Episode 9: Resourcing in Pleasure (with Ann Nguyen)

What do desire and pleasure have to do with The Great Turning? Oh so deliciously much.

I asked Ann Nguyen to join the Turning Season conversation not only because she facilitates trauma resolution – which is a huge piece of personal and global healing – but also because she facilitates a deepened connection to Love itself, and to a thrumming, radiant kind of aliveness that many of us are longing for. She helps women experience pleasure as liberatory, and as fuel for personal empowerment and stronger leadership.

Click Play below to hear us talk about:

the aliveness and satisfaction that’s available to us (and might make us less inclined to be consumeristic or extractive)
how the awakening of self-love in more individuals gives rise to more voices being expressed and heard, nurturing that essential characteristic of healthy ecosystems: diversity
the desire for “more” as not necessarily destructive, but as a regenerative, life-giving force
how Ann’s been influenced by Black feminist thought leadership about eroticism and pleasure
why some of her online groups are for women of color only, where connection through joy, power, and pleasure is part of the medicine
how pleasure can fill us up enough to serve from our overflow; or help us stay within the nervous system’s “window of tolerance” (even when “overflow” feels far away)
and an invitation from Ann into “ecosexuality”

I checked the little “E” for explicit on this one. For some of you it won’t seem very explicit at all, but I also know that some of you will decide this one isn’t for you (or maybe not for the ears of little ones you’re around).

You’ll hear the word “p*ssy,” and general enthusiasm about erotic aliveness. So, if that sounds great to you, go hit Play, and if not, no hard feelings, you can catch the next one.

As to how working with Ann has impacted me, you’ve probably felt her influence on my approach if you’ve joined me in the past year to learn acupressure, or be part of group exploration of physical and emotional health through Chinese Medicine. She’s helped me open up to the wonder of our bodies as miracles of nature, see them through the eyes of love, and not be afraid to talk about it. She’s also helped me restore my vitality, and discover how to serve from my own overflow.

I’ve learned through this process that self-acceptance is one thing. A beautiful, vital thing – but not necessarily pleasurable. It can even have an air of resignation to it. But then there’s self-LOVE, which is indeed pleasurable. Something to sink into, to be held by, to savor. Ann and I touch on a related theme in the podcast conversation, when we talk about wanting to survive on Earth vs. desiring to thrive on Earth.

Always such a pleasure for me to talk with Ann. Click Play on the player above, or one of the links below to your favorite podcast player. I hope you enjoy it thoroughly.

Ann Nguyen is a Vietnamese American Women’s Sexual Empowerment & Leadership coach whose work centers on pleasure as a liberatory practice & fuel for personal empowerment. She teaches women how to love their bodies, to see sexuality as sacred, and how to channel orgasmic pleasure into better relationships, career, leadership and self love. Through her coaching and online programs, she reconnects women to the power of their sexuality and facilitates deep transformation for sexual reclamation. Most of all – she’s here to make our modern day sexual revolution fun & accessible to all.

Connect with Ann:

On Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theannnguyen/

On her website: https://www.theannnguyen.com/

Books mentioned for diving deeper into the interconnections between pleasure, sensuality, community and shifting into a life-sustaining society for all:

Emergent Strategy, by adrienne marie brown

Pleasure Activism, by adrienne marie brown

Pussy: A Reclamation by Regena Thomashauer

(If you choose to buy a book through one of these links, your purchase will (at no extra cost to you) support Turning Season Podcast)