On the Soul's Terms #100 | Vive Oldham | Re-membering Pleasure | The Fifth House
What happens in our bodies and nervous systems when we engage in spontaneous creativity? How might reclaiming our relationship with pleasure transform our capacity to navigate life's challenges? These questions form the heart of my conversation with Vive Oldham, somatic educator and facilitator of the "Pleasure as a Revolutionary Act" summit.
Vive shares the transformative moment when, burned out from city life, she sat drawing with her young children and discovered something remarkable – after just an hour of creative play, she felt both deeply rested and enlivened. This sparked a nightly art practice that consistently shifted her state regardless of how exhausted she felt beforehand. "My whole physiology would change," she recalls, "and I was like, what is going on?"
This led her to explore the fascinating distinction between exhaustion and lethargy – sometimes what we interpret as needing rest is actually a disconnection that requires engagement through a different channel. Creative expression often provides exactly the pathway needed to move from lethargy back into aliveness and presence.
We dive deep into how modern culture has commodified pleasure, relegating it to "non-necessary" indulgence rather than recognising it as fundamental to human thriving. "Pleasure is always there in the field," Vive notes, but we've been conditioned to disconnect from it and then seek it externally through consumption.
Perhaps most profound was our exploration of pleasure beyond positive emotions. True pleasure, in its deepest sense, is about connection and fully experiencing the range of human feeling – there can be a profound pleasure even in grief when it opens our hearts. This expanded understanding challenges our cultural tendency to avoid discomfort and suggests that developing greater capacity to feel allows us to be more fully present with life's complexities.
Join us for this rich conversation about the Fifth House of astrology, the dance between structure and spontaneity, and how theatrical expression allows us to embody different archetypal energies. Learn how simple creative practices might help you rediscover what brings you to life.
Want to explore more about pleasure as a revolutionary act? Register for Vive's upcoming global summit at viveandco.com where diverse voices will explore the many textures of pleasure beyond indulgence.
*The episode write up above was generated by Buzzsprout's AI.
Cover Art is from Vive: Summer.
People/works mentioned in this epsiode:
Michael Meade
Marion Woodman
Marion Dunlea (Bodydreaming)
Kimberly Ann Johnson (Call of the Wild)
Bill Plotkin (Wild Mind)
Brian & Glenys Clark (Astro Synthesis)
Chameli Gad
Podcast Musician: Marlia Coeur
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