Today we’d like to introduce you to Janelle Orion.
Janelle, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
I’m the daughter of a former Catholic Nun and Priest – yes really! Even though I grew up on religion and Disney, I found my courage to outgrow stuffy societal norms around pleasure and intimacy. I’ve been on a Braveheart Journey – and I feel wildly alive!
10 years ago I was a 40 year old feminist who finally found my one. I married for the first time at 45, believing our age, our maturity, and open relationship would be enough to safeguard us from divorce.
Growing up I equated pleasure to sex, and sex was discussed only in terms of procreation. I was raised to believe in marriage and monogamy, happily ever after and one person forever. And society teaches us that when we find “the one”, they are going to check all the boxes. And that we will just “know” how to be everything to each other.
Only a few months after getting married, my husband stopped desiring to have sex with me. No movie taught me what the heck to do with that. When it came to hard conversations, I didn’t have the communication skills to handle the emotional pain, hurt, shame and anger. I was a puddle of tears and everything was somehow his fault.
When talk therapy didn’t help our sex life, I got the courage to seek education around my pleasure and intimacy at Tantra retreats. Turns out, the journey of unwinding societal conditioning is a painful one. It demands feeling the long suppressed emotions, grieving the loss of an imagined reality, letting go of how life was supposed to look (throwing Disney out the window), and releasing certainty, righteousness and defensiveness. Ouch.
I realized I was holding shame and guilt around feeling GOOD and that I had spent my entire life prioritizing someone else’s pleasure over my own.
It hurt to realize that I had been blaming someone else for how I was feeling (someone whom I loved) and to really understand that I’m responsible for my emotions.
Learning healthy communication meant learning what I wanted and how to ask for it. Once I learned these skills I uncovered that I was honoring my partners boundaries and crossing my own. We got divorced – in love – and to this day are neighbors and chosen family.
The journey home to myself was painful, but it still felt less jarring than living a life full of resentment, blame, bitterness, numbness, dissociation, and the dimming of my light.
The more I paid attention to my body, the more I realized it had a lot to say. I listened to my body and started to know that pleasure is in fact sacred. The more I tune into my pleasure, the more I feel wildly alive.
Emotional release tools and conversation frameworks taught me how to regulate my nervous system and come back to center when I’m upset. They help me stay more connected during the inevitable hard and vulnerable conversations.
I went through the hard journey of discovering what I want. I learned how to honor my boundaries. And I was able to present them in a way that had people love and respect me. And now I have greater trust in myself, a strong sense of safety in my body, and feel more FREE!
As a result of my journey, I’ve become an erotic wellness advocate; I believe in normalizing the need for skills and education in the areas of pleasure and intimacy so we can have more fulfilling relationships. I am a Erotic Wellness practitioner and the co-host of the podcast Permission to be Human: Learning to be Brave in Relationships.
As you know, we’re big fans of Feel Wildly Alive. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
Through my company, Feel Wildly Alive, I guide men, women and couples through embodied pleasure and intimacy experiences so they can have more fulfilling relationships with themselves and with others. I’m known for my radical acceptance and willingness to share vulnerably and transparently about taboo topics and my own life experiences. On our podcast, Permission to be Human, Andrea Enright and I speak to our community of Bravehearts. A Braveheart is someone who is seeking or found the courage to confront their fears and limiting beliefts to learn to be brave in relationships. The result, and what I’m most proud of, is whether through working with me 1:1 or as a listener of our podcast, people find greater permission to be themselves.
In terms of your work and the industry, what are some of the changes you are expecting to see over the next five to ten years?
Wellness is a 1.8 trillion dollar industry in the US, with an emphasis on physical and mental wellness. While sexual wellness is a subset, it focuses on physical health, such as safe sex practices, contraception, and the treatment of sexual health issues. Erotic wellness takes a broader view and incorporates the mental, emotional, and spiritual aspects of sexuality, focusing on personal empowerment, pleasure, connection, and intimacy, as well as healing from trauma and emotional wounds.
I am collaborating with a community of advocates, practitoners and healers who are working to redefine sexuality as an essential element of self-care and personal development. Our goal is to normalize and elevate erotic wellness into a respected and mainstream practice by blending ancient wisdom with modern therapeutic modalities. This includes somatic therapy, intimacy coaching, and conscious eroticism, making erotic health a cornerstone of overall well-being.
In the next 5-10 years we envision a world where erotic wellness is celebrated as a vital part of holistic health, empowering individuals to reclaim their erotic energy as a source of healing, vitality, creativity and personal growth.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.feelwildlyalive.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/feelwildlyalive/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558572755509
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/janelleorion/
- Other: https://www.permissiontobehuman.live/
Image Credits
Lena Nugent
