how to think like a luxury hedonist for a life well-lived
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time to read 3 min
the art of a well-lived life is about living richly
For the Luxury Hedonist, living richly is less about how much you consume and more about how you consume... your taste, discernment, appetite and desires. It's the choices you make to not settle for fine when you prefer something different, something more, something less. It's having a collector's impulses checked against your personal whims, standards and creativity. There's so much life coming at you, the beauty is in how you curate it.
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Become impossible to market to.
The Luxury Hedonist isn't chasing trends and she has zero FOMO. She's off collecting experiences, objects, flavors, places and people that genuinely move her. Taste gets sharper when it's your own versus what the crowd says is hot right now.
Have a sexy something in your ear.
Do you know your word porn? Your voice porn?That sultry song that transports you. That tone voice that moves like electricity through you. That lyric, that poem, that prose you read in college that made you melt. Feed yourself that ear candy.
Get your hands dirty.
Dig them in the soil, knead that dough, massage them so the blood gets flowing, run them through that bowl of greens as the water erupts from the faucet, eat with your hands…. Slip your fingers into the grist of life and let it make you feel alive, sensual, connected, erotic.
Develop expensive tastes in inexpensive things.
Fresh peonies from the corner market. A perfectly ripe peach. The right olive oil. The book nobody else is reading yet. Luxury isn't always about price. More often, it's about your attention to detail.
Keep a secret.
Maybe it’s your most luxurious lingerie on a Monday afternoon, a silk kimono you can't keep your own hands off of, maybe it’s your body jewelry, maybe it’s your leather wrist band (that’s really a cock ring in disguise) or maybe it’s that Ubi panty you’ve got hidden in your clutch for just the right moment. Mystery has a way of igniting our most luxurious impulses.
Learn to curate and elevate.
Know what bitters to use to change the profile of your Vieux Carre. Which record store owner secures the most off-radar vinyls. Who to call to get the last table at midnight. What salts to stock in your cabinet to make any take-out taste Michelin-level. Taste is something you test, uncover and cultivate.
Create something… anything.
Create something with your hands. Arrange flowers. Curate a dinner party. Discover how many stirs makes the perfect, coldest Manhattan for your palate. A life well-lived is less about consuming what's in front of you and more about becoming the author of what's next.
Live in the mood.
Ambience is absolutely everything. Throw red fabric over a lamp so every evening is set to mood-lighting. Light votives each night and eat by candlelight for no reason other than you can. Use your most delicious fragrances as room spray. Fill a vase with flowers. Walk barefoot on the floor boards, or the carpet, or whatever turns you on.
Collect stories, not stuff
The bottle you shared until sunrise. The boutique hotel in Rio with the impossible view. The perfume you wore in Paris. The West Village chef who offered you something off-menu. The things worth cherishing as memories rarely fit on a shelf.
Bury yourself in a little erotica.
That lazy Sunday morning armchair reading doesn’t have to be news updates from your phone or that stack of unread biographies you'll eventually get to. Doesn't some a.m. dirty talk with your coffee sound a little more enticing? No end game or goal or agenda, other than it feels fucking good to get lost in the pages of a fantasy.
Explore altered states
A life well-lived isn't one that's experienced from one vantage point... or one state of mind. And every great collector knows the object isn't the whole experience, rather it's simply the perspective. A glass of rare tequila. A night at the ballet. A legal cannabis tasting. A guided mushroom journey. A fragrance that evolves with every hour you wear it. Different lenses... different ways of seeing the same life.
Flirt like you love your life
With yourself, with life, with the random hottie in line for coffee. It's that charming, playful energy that makes life fun, sensual and spontaneous... and keeps you feeling alive, and yes sexy. The only beauty standard in this equation is how much you engage in life around you.
The art of a well-lived life will make you harder to impress but far easier to delight.
