lucylucy -> RE: When you first started out (2/1/2010 6:05:30 AM)
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ORIGINAL: lovingpet I've always been my own mentor in situations. I read everything I could get my hands on, messed around in chatrooms and such. I didn't venture into real time until I felt I had a pretty firm grasp on the reality of bdsm and power exchange relationships. One thing I did was to keep far, far away from any kind of bdsm porn or erotica. As any porn or erotica, it is a very plainly skewed perspective and not at all in line with my goals of understanding things in the here and now. I did have one friend who was deep in "lifestyle" that initially introduced me to the whole thing and that I could run ideas by. I wouldn't call her a mentor, but I did do a lot of learning and exploring both because of and with her. I don't trust instincts too much. I find that many of us no longer have the survivalist sensibilities we as a species once had. I find my instincts get indelible impressions from emotions, past history, family, moral and social expectations and more. All these things CAN be important, but the gut reaction really does have to be fully evaluated before determining if it is entirely accurate. I am pretty good in flight or fight, but anything else gives me pause. BDSM is like anything else. Learning, impressions, and desires will be impacted by a myriad of sources. I always hope to be open to the lessons that are before me. Otherwise, I don't complain if they whack me square in the head when needed. lovingpet What lovingpet said goes for me, too. I "studied" a lot, reading online and lurking on message boards. That's my SOP when I get into something new: I read a ton about it. I don't trust "instincts" much, either. Many times at the beginning my instincts were so thoroughly molded by having lived a vanilla life for nearly 40 years. My instincts were almost useless to me and I realized that. I suppose in some ways, these message boards and everyone who posts on them served as a mentor for me. I don't know anyone in real life that is into this, so I had no real life friends to bounce ideas off of.
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