Vacations from Pleasuretown: Why Breaks are Necessary

The lifestyle... can be a rush of excitement, liberating exploration, and whirlwind of fun. What's not talked about is what happens when the whirlwind makes you dizzy. 

We often preach "life in moderation" as being the concept of exploring and doing what makes you happy, as long as you do so responsibly. This concept applies to most of life's experiences, with a few exceptions. The tricky party: responsibility. 

Responsibility will catch up, whether you are welcoming to it or running from it. The Lifestyle is no exception.

The sexiest parts... ​

...of the lifestyle can make it addicting. Getting lost in the moment, each moment, when a new couple or single shows interest, can be a never ending cycle of chasing the fun. The rush of new relationship energy is intoxicating and the thrill of seeing your partner having fun is an even greater high. 

Click here to watch our interview with John & Jackie from OpenLove101

​It's no secret that the lifestyle is a fuck-load of fun. We get it. We've had it. There's proof. ​​

​We could write pages and pages of praising the lifestyle's positives. But, it's time we share the responsible side of things.

For us...

 ... a break was necessary to break free from the concept of tying business and pleasure together. 

From the moment we exposed ourselves on Swing, on PlayboyTV, we recognized that recognition was valuable. For many years, we used our exposure as a way to forge and bridge communities locally. We hosted Happy Hours and Meet & Greets for our friends. We used our name to continue expanding these communities. We did it without compensation, because it was fun.

In 2016, we began capitalizing on that name by co-hosting/promoting a large  New Year's Eve party. The turn-out was fantastic. The payoff was great. The event itself was a fucking blast! But... this was the turning point in what we had been largely successful at, without monetary profit, for years. When compensation came into play is when the feeling of obligation began ruining our lifestyle.

Molly Conway wrote this great article discussing The Modern Trap of obligating yourself to the things that you find joy in. The trope of our generation is to find a way to make money doing what you love so that you never have to "work" a day in your life. Molly points out that the very real truth that, "those with passion careers can have just as much career anxiety as those who clock in and out of the mindless daily grind." She goes on to identify just how much people in passion careers work in an effort to truly be successful.

It's been a while since we've read anything that rang so true for our experience with attempting to capitalize on our names and efforts. The sacrifice, the dedication, the hours... there's a lot that "doing what you love" takes. For us, all of those things take TOO much of a toll on the genuine joy we experience in the lifestyle. 

We'll be back...

...but we've been enjoying a little more than a year "off" as we refocus our efforts. We've disconnected from the things that create obligation to the lifestyle. We're only sharing and participating in things we are genuinely excited about. We aren't following any particular crowd or trend. We are doing what makes us happy, again.

Author

Daniel is a pan-sexual, open-lifestyle advocate and event-organizer who has used his appearance on PlayboyTV, with wife, Nikki, to commit to being the voice for the unprotected class of non-traditional relationships.