08/03/2026
The Oxford Dictionary defines “sensuality” as “the enjoyment or expression of physical, particularly sexual, pleasure.”
I disagree.
The word sensuality comes from the Latin ‘sensus’, which means “feeling, sense”.
Originally, it referred simply to our five senses:
Sight. Touch. Taste. Smell. Sound.
But in the fifteenth century, religious culture twisted the meaning, associating sensuality with sin, indulgence, and shameful lust.
And ever since, the word has carried that distortion.
But sensuality is not excess.
Sensuality is not seduction.
Sensuality is not performance for others.
Sensuality is not aesthetic.
Sensuality is the poetry of sensation.
Sensuality is how humans experience being alive.
It is awareness returning to the body.
It is presence through the senses.
It is the willingness to feel life fully, instead of numbing it.
I don’t know how to breathe beautifully without it.
I don’t know how to move without it.
I don’t know how to love without it.
I don’t know how to live without it.
Sensuality is attuning to your sensations, which is the ancient language of the body.
It is noticing how the world touches you back.
You like the sensation of the wind in your hair, and you notice that the wind also likes the sensation of your hair. 🌬️
Sensuality is the art of feeling fully: the pain, the ecstasy, the beauty, the brokenness.
Sensuality is the slow language of skin, presence, and gravity. It is the body listening to texture, temperature, colour, breath, and movement.
It is the moment when experience becomes intimate.
I’ve heard people say that I dance “too sensually.”
After the initial flash of rage that rises in me when I hear this, my response is that…
I respectfully DISAGREE. 💥
Dance IS a sensual activity — for everyone — if you are actually feeling your body through your senses.
How we dance is a reflection of how we do life.
When I dance
I am simply remembering that I am
Alive.
Awake.
Feeling.
When I dance
I am right here
Right now
In this miraculous body
Every moment perfect as it is.
And I will not apologise for moving in a way that feels true and alive to me.
**ra ***iclife ***icyoga
