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Swept Away by The Moment
Your motto? Excess is best. While it's impossible to be too sensual, you may be crossing the line that separates sensory appreciation from rampant sensation-seeking. "Sensuality is correlated to sensation-seeking," says Louis Janda, Ph.D., a professor of psychology at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, and author of The Psychologist's Book of Self Tests (Perigee, 1996). "People who are extreme sensation-seekers can get into trouble by experimenting with drugs or sex." These "extremists" live so much in the moment that they don't worry about the consequences: Who cares if you have a horrible hangover at the office tomorrow, as long as you're enjoying the wine that you're drinking tonight?
Just as some people are born with analytical temperaments, others are genetically wired to crave a higher level of stimulation. And neither, of course, strikes the ideal balance. "Sensuality is a lust for life, not nonstop lust," says Joanna Whitcup, Ed.D., a psychotherapist in Greenwich, Connecticut. Instead of following some sort of self-destructive pleasure principle -- consisting of bar-hopping, compulsive shopping, fast cars -- why not slow down and, yes, smell the roses? Really enjoy what's going on around you for a change. "Give yourself less to do," says psychologist Paul Pearsall, Ph.D., author of The Pleasure Prescription (Hunter House, 1996). "Say no. Approach life tenderly."