Pleasure is Health
The importance of self, sensation and care
We’ve all heard the saying “The body holds the score” - for many of us that couldn’t be more true - so how does it hold our pleasure? What happens when we deny that? What happens when we nourish that?
Your body is not a problem to be solved. It is a landscape to be known, tended to, and deeply enjoyed.
On Wellbeing
For far too long, pleasure and health have lived in separate rooms - one spoken of under bated breath with wide eyes and taboo in the air, the other with a factual importance. But the World Health Organisation (WHO) defines health not merely as the absence of disease, but as a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing.
As they state in WHO’s Constitution:
“The enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of health is one of the fundamental rights of every human being without distinction of race, religion, political belief, economic or social condition.”
When enjoyment is of such paramount concern, we need no further encouragement.
Sexual wellness is not a luxury addendum to a healthy life - it is a pillar of it. The facts are unequivocal: intimacy - with ourselves and with others - reduces cortisol, elevates mood, improves sleep, and deepens our relationship to our own bodies. Self-exploration is not indulgence; it is medicine.
At Coco de Mer, we have always believed this. It is why every piece we create - from our Lingerie to our Toys, our Salons to our Bondage - is designed with a single quiet intention: to help you feel more wholly, beautifully, unapologetically alive.
Knowing your own pleasure is one of the most radical acts of self-love available to you.
On Self Love
To truly love yourself, you have to really know yourself, surely?
Self-love is often reduced to bubble baths and affirmations. And whilst these are lovely rituals that we treasure, we believe it goes deeper than that. Real self-love is an ongoing conversation between you and your body - a willingness to listen, to explore, to discover what brings you joy without apology or shame.
It begins with permission. Permission to take up space. Permission to feel. Permission to prioritise your own experience as worthy of time, care, and attention. Knowing your own pleasure is one of the most radical acts of self-love available to you - because it grounds you entirely in yourself, in the present, in your own skin.
Appreciating that at different ages and stages in our life, our body will respond differently is empowering, so being in tune with ourselves at every stage makes a huge difference to female arousal.
This World Health Day, we invite you to reconsider the ritual of self-care. Not as a checklist, but as a practice of genuine curiosity. What do you enjoy? What makes your body feel alive? What does it mean to tend to yourself - all of yourself - with the same devotion you might offer another?
“Self-acceptance and the confidence, joy, and improved health that come with education and uninhibited explorations of pleasure are what I want to deliver to women. Pleasure and sexual fulfilment shouldn’t be regarded as luxuries; more women need to regard their own sexual satisfaction as a necessity. What is more healthy than taking time to appreciate your body and to relish the feelings it can hold, as an individual and as a couple? How can you ever communicate what you like to a partner if you haven’t tried to find out what works for you and your body? Self-love is the only way to truly understand your own body and your own desires - and appreciate them all.”
Lucy Litwack, Owner and CEO, Coco de Mer
As you may imagine, we are only too happy to assist with this odyssey…
Take time to play
Designed with incorrigible intention, our award-winning range of toys has been meticulously created for the deepest pleasures, in so many ways.
Our Pleasure Collection was built around one central truth: that the tools we use to explore our bodies should be as considered, beautiful, and trustworthy as anything else we invite into our lives. High-quality lubricants formulated with body-safe ingredients. Sensory accessories that invite presence and curiosity. Each piece chosen not for novelty - although we do love to see those smiles - but for what it might genuinely offer you. Even the chocolate brown vegan leather packaging is a tactile delight.
Pleasure can be a language. The Pleasure Collection helps you become fluent in your own.
The Muse by Coco de Mer Collection is a wonderful range for beginners. Because understanding your own anatomy and what brings you pleasure is not a frivolous pursuit. It is foundational to sexual health, confidence, and the quality of your intimate life, alone or alongside another.
Crafted for solo and shared exploration - the choice is always yours. Curious? Our guide to buying sex toys might be worth a scroll.
Intimate Play
Surround yourself with sensational touches.
There is an underestimated elevation when you add the right preparations to the mix. Our Intimate Play is a beautifully designed collection to accompany your pleasurable escapades.
These are pieces that invite you into yourself, that make getting dressed (or undressed) feel like a ritual of self-regard, rather than a performance for anyone else's gaze.
Make sure you take care of your NBFs too. Our Pleasure Renewed Toy Cleaner is a must-have.
Remember pleasure seekers: Sexual wellness is not a luxury addendum to a healthy life. It is a pillar of it.
On Body Image
Many of us battle with self perception, and looking at the digital landscape alone is easy to see why. But we must be clear on this - our body is not a ‘before’ picture.
One of the quietest gifts of genuine self-exploration is this: it is very difficult to be at war with a body you are learning to enjoy. Body image - that fraught, culturally-loaded relationship we have with our physical selves - begins to soften when we stop viewing our bodies as objects to be assessed, and start experiencing them as subjects. As pillars of sensation - as something that belongs entirely to us.
Lingerie that fits beautifully, toys and wellness products like Intimate Play that are designed with anatomical care, that celebrate your body's capacity for pleasure rather than attempting to correct it - these are not small things. They are invitations back into yourself. And it is such a joy for us to be able to provide that empowering, joyful experience.
Take care of yourself - All of yourself.
This World Health Day, we hope you give yourself permission to expand your definition of wellbeing - to make room for pleasure, for curiosity, for the deeply human experience of inhabiting a body and finding joy in it.
You deserve to know what you like. You deserve to feel good. You deserve tools, garments, and rituals that honour the full complexity of who you are.
That is not indulgence. That is health.
If you enjoyed this, you might enjoy these other Reading Room pieces:
Confidence Architecture: The Psychology of Lingerie
Divine Liberation: The Beauty of Tantra