What is submissive headspace and how to access it

For me submissive headspace is the place I am in when I am deeply submissive. It goes beyond my submissive mindset because mindset is more of a conscious thing. Submissive headspace differs because it is about thinking and feeling deeply submissive which becomes an automatic response. It is a place that I go to when I have given up control, when I have let go.

Although there is an element of these things in any power exchange, they can work on a sliding scale. My submissive headspace is the place I am in when I have arrived, when I am taken over by my submission and it becomes all I am. At this point, nothing else really matters. The rest of my world is still there but submission is my focus and, as the person who I submit to, it becomes all about HL.

Subspace

Some people would refer to a submissive headspace as subspace which is a euphoric state you can find yourself in due to the chemical endorphins created during some forms of play. I have written about subspace and how it works for me before. Certainly subspace might be part of my submissive headspace, but it is not all about that for me. For one reason, the sort of subspace that is written about is often the result of heavier pain play scenes which we don’t tend to do all that much.

Other forms of play can also induce that euphoric state and when that happens I will lose sense of space and time. It will be lovely to feel that I am so relaxed and usually I become all about the pleasure and the sensation. I stop thinking and just feel. I am very malleable and will be totally focussed on HL and on what he is doing and making me experience. It is a lovely place and it is certainly part of my submission, but I don’t see it as being the same as my submissive headspace or what I would call my submissive space.

Submissive Headspace

My submissive headspace is a space that I get into where I become completely submissive. I am aware of what I am doing so it is far more connected than the sort of subspace described above where I would be responding to a sensory overload which would affect my ability to process in the usual way. Neither is it like mindset which is a choice to think and behave in a submissive way, albeit supported by a set of rules and rituals.

Submissive headspace is something I fall into. There will usually be a trigger and often I can feel it. I might fight it initially, not because I don’t want to be in this space but more because it comes as a result of my boundaries being pushed. I find what I am being asked to do difficult in some way, but I am being asked to do it by my Dominant so it pushes me to agree. It will either arise from the pushing of certain buttons which trigger a submissive response or from being Dominated, which does the same.

More about triggers for submissive headspace

Erotic humiliation will push me into my submissive space. This happens because it forces me to let go on an emotional level of my own idea of myself. It demands that I confront a different version of myself and in order to do that, I must let go of the me that I am in public and to others. I become something else and that part is fully submissive. I twist and I turn on myself, but it is a visible change to those who witness it happen.

I embrace this other self and hold on to her whilst still being aware of my other side. It feels a bit like having one foot in each world and it makes me feel confused and conflicted as my mind flits from one way of thinking to another. There is certainly a fight internally. The cognitive dissonance that it causes for me hold me there in this alternate space until I am pushed completely into my submissive side, at which point I give up and become what I feel I am destined to be.

On the other hand, when I am pushed into my submissive space through Dominance, the struggle is less. It happens initially and can involve some push back or wriggling as I try to get out of it, but once it is clear that I am going to be doing whatever it is, I give in and become very compliant. Rather than the constant flick between two states, I let go of one and slip into another. I become completely what HL wants and needs me to be and see things from his point of view.

Being in this headspace as a response to my boundaries being pushed can last for much longer than with accessing it through humiliation. I have been there before for an extended period of 4 days and I imagine it would be longer if the circumstances were right. I am held there by the situation and the way it makes me feel but because I am supported by HL’s Dominance, my only focus is him.

Why I enjoy this submissive headspace

No matter how being in that space comes about, there is a freedom and a feeling that I have let go of all that would usually hold me back. I feel changed; calmer, more carefree and as if things are really simple. I don’t overthink and am happy to be told what to do. It isn’t a conscious choice to be like this and where I would strive to respond in this way all the time, it just doesn’t work like that. I always want to be submissive to HL and to respond to him appropriately but that is different than being in my submissive space.

I am more vulnerable in this state and am also very focussed. It is as if my submission is all that I am and everything else fades away so it would not be possible to function like this all the time. My life requires that I engage with a variety of different things and that I act independently to HL while I do them. I still see myself as being his submissive, however, and our power exchange is a thread that runs through many aspects of our life together.

I draw on my submissive mindset to help me to live a D/s lifestyle but as part of that, at points I will move deep within my submissive headspace. This can be to do with play but will also occur at other times, although it has to be when HL and I have time to be focussed just on each other, or at least on our D/s. I will also sometimes be pushed to the point during play where the sensory overload will mean that I let go and move into subspace, but I do see the three states of subspace, submissive mindset and submissive headspace as being distinct.

Related post: submissive mindset and other thinking parts