Transcription: Take a Sensual Selfie With Me!

Welcome to Sensual Self. I’m Ev’Yan Whitney and this is a space for you to slow down, tune in so that you can heal + feel the sensations and pleasures of your sensual body. Thank you for being here.

Why hello! How are you? I hope you are doing well and feeling ease in your body. I know you weren’t expecting to hear from me today but there are some exciting things happening right now that I’ve been wanting to share with you, and I thought I would pop in your feed, and tell you about them.

I have two announcements for you—both of which are really exciting.

The first one is that I am doing a book club! A couple weeks back I created a book club for all the people who have preordered my book, Sensual Self. This is a space or club where we will talk about sensuality, body mindfulness, sexuality, and pleasure, and it’ll also be a place for you to hang with me. I have workshops planned for the members of this space, like meditations and sensual practices. I also have some special events coming soon and even some sneak peeks of my book, Sensual Self, that I’ll be sharing there.

We had our first meeting, which was more of a meet + greet, a couple weeks back and we’re just about to have our second meeting this Saturday. This one will be a Sensual Dance Meditation class that I’ll be teaching where we’ll be connecting to our sensual bodies and creating more space for joy and pleasure in them through organic movement. I started teaching these classes at the beginning of the pandemic and a lot of folks really loved having that space to move and feel their bodies. I’m really looking forward to doing some Sensual Dance Meditation not only because I really need to move my body, but the playlist I made for us to dance to is FIRE if I may say so myself.

Anyway, if you'd like to join the Sensual Self book club for this and future digital hangs with me, you can go to evyanwhitney.com/bookclub to join us. All of this is free, by the way.

Okay, the next announcement is something I am beyond excited about. If you follow me on Instagram, you might’ve already seen what’s going on, but I’ll just announce it here: The Sensual Selfie Challenge is BACK y’all. I’m doing another round of the Sensual Selfie Challenge starting next week, and when I tell you I am thrilled?! I am thrilled!

If you’re not familiar, the Sensual Selfie Challenge is a five-day internet event I created dedicated to helping us celebrate our sensuality and take up space with our bodies using sensual self-portraiture. What we do is, each day during a special designated time, we take a selfie that celebrates our sensuality, our body, our radiance, and we post it on Instagram using a special hashtag and inviting others to play along with us. This challenge is not about anything other than shamelessly showing ourselves off, celebrating our connections to ourselves, the way we’ve healed ourselves, the way we feel ourselves, and in a lot of ways, it’s a radical act because we’re doing this in a culture that tells us not to take up space, to not be braggadocios and to keep our sensualities hidden.

More than anything though, the Sensual Selfie Challenge is a lot of fun! I mean, the last time I did this we had thousands of people participate. It even got some press. And I have to say, of all the things I’ve created on the internet—and I’ve created a lot of things in my career on the internet—the Sensual Selfie Challenge is one of my favorites. Like, I still get people emailing me today about the previous challenges they did and how deeply it impacted the way they saw themselves, their bodies, and their sexuality. That shit makes me so happy, so of course I’m gonna do this again!

The last time I facilitated one of these was in 2018 and the timing this time around feels really right, especially because sensuality is heavy on my brain with my book coming out and this newly named podcast. Also, I’m feeling like it would be cool to bring some lightness and levity to Instagram right now, because, I’m not sure if you’ve been feeling it, it could just be me, but things have been weird with that platform and I’d love to bring a little playfulness and community back into the space.

The Sensual Selfie Challenge officially starts next Monday. To join us, head over to my website, evyanwhitney.com/sensualselfie.

The first day of the challenge starts next Monday. You’re also welcome to follow me on Instagram; I’m gonna be talking about this all week. I’m @evyan.whitney. And follow the official Sensual Selfie Challenge IG too, @sensualselfiechallenge. That’s where we’ll be featuring people’s selfies and organizing our sensual movements in these internet streets.

And truly with the Sensual Selfie Challenge, the more the merrier. Tell your friends, your faves, your babes. And let’s have some fun together!

Okay my loves, that’s all I have for you today. Thanks for hearing these church announcements. Actually, that’s an interesting thought, having a church dedicated to Sensuality and Pleasure, and like, I am a priest. Like a sensual priest who helps you connect to your body through earthy pleasures. Ohhh, you know what, sign me up! Sign me up, I would love to be a sensual priest.

OK, enough of me. A regular episode comes out next week, but in the meantime, I hope to see you at the function.

Bye for now!