Exes, Desire, and the Persistence of Erotic Imprint
(What Your Nervous System Does With Unfinished Desire) “The nervous system doesn’t forget intimacy. If you don’t metabolize that charge, it haunts you. If you learn to harness it, it becomes power.” — JH Would you be opposed to harnessing the intensity and chaos from a breakup to create your most erotic, abundant, enjoyable life? Forget needing to forgive. Forget finding closure. Forget cutting people out of your life. The other day I watched a man run down the sidewalk after his ex. I knew their history. The breakup had been harsh enough that most people would cross the street to avoid each other. I instinctively stepped forward to defend her. Instead, they stopped and they talked quietly for a few minutes. Then they hugged. When they parted, there was real love and respect between them. When we walked away she said. “I chose awhile back not to hold onto the story. It only hurts me, and it blocks my ability to love the person I’m with now.” They didn’t erase the past, they transformed the charge. Where the Charge Goes: Breakups don’t end desire. Once romantic and sexual energy has been shared, the nervous system records it. Bodies that have breathed together, fought together, loved together create an erotic imprint. That energy doesn’t disappear. It changes form and remains in the system. It can become sexual fantasy, just as easily as it can become anger or revengeful thinking. Over the last 22 years I’ve worked with hundreds of people stuck in what I call the breakup loop. They don’t want their ex back, they just don’t know what to do with the energy that was created between them. Exes become ghosts in the psyche. Just like in Elle King’s song — Ex's & Oh's "My ex’s and the oh, oh, oh’s they haunt me Like ghosts they want me to make ‘em all They won’t let go Ex’s and oh’s" The Integration: Once we admit the desire still exists — not because we want to jump back into bed — something powerful happens. The nervous system has options. That energy can become: