Mindfulness for Sex Workers

Real World Mindfulness for Beginners

This lovely, easy-to-read book offers a wonderful introduction to mindfulness practice, which I recommend for all sex workers.

One thing I’d give to every sex worker alive would be the gift of mindfulness. It wouldn’t alleviate poverty, resolve injustice, or wipe out whorephobia. But mindfulness surely does have a positive affect how we relate to problems as well as go a long ways towards making us feel at home in our own bodies and minds.

Mindfulness in sex work helps you to:

--Learn to make friends with yourself, no matter what you feel or think. This means getting more comfortable with uncomfortable emotions by cultivating distance between what you’re experiencing in the moment and your core sense of self. Self-regulation and objectivity is crucial in sex work, when we’re continually navigating negativity, threats, and rudeness. Just having that moment when we can pause and say—Hey -- I’m feeling really angry/hurt/scared right now, but I’m not going to let it overwhelm me – is vital to self-care and making good decisions.

--Reduce stress-related physical ailments. Science is finding that mindfulness and conscious breathing techniques can help relieve physical symptoms including insomnia, high blood pressure, anxiety attacks, headaches, and so much more. Mindfulness means listening to what our bodies are telling us, rather than shutting ourselves off -- so very important when our sexuality is our livelihood.

--Know where your business ends and your clients’ begins. Clients bring us all their sexual emotional baggage, including shame, rage, fear, low self-esteem, bigotry, guilt, and envy. Mindfulness offers tools to see their suffering clearly and to respond with compassion, while keeping ourselves centered and safe.

Real World Mindfulness for Beginners is a series of short easy-to-read-easy-to-understand teachings from a wide range of Buddhist and Western teachers including Kaira Jewel Lingo on cultivating gratitude and joy, and my dear friend, life coach Fresh White, on changing bad habits and negative behaviors. It’s one of those books that you can read cover to cover, or turn to any page and dive right in.

We spend so much of our lives worried about our beach bods and our bank accounts. Mindfulness deepens our sense of full-bodied wellbeing, which is the greatest wealth there is. It can be practiced anywhere, anytime, and it’s free.

To anyone who wants to learn more, I recommend keeping Mindfulness for Beginners by your bedside and spending a few minutes with it every morning and night. 

Until next time, be sweet to yourself-- Love-- Lola D.

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