New Year! Time to CELEBRATE?
January 5, 2012 in Celebrate!, Life
boost your esteem by Liz
YOU DID IT! You made it through another year! CONGRATS!!!
Take a bow….. (no really, get up and take a bow. Do it. I’lll wait.)
I’d like to start out by asking you all a question, a non ‘I married into the restaurant industry’ question. (If I may…)
How do you CELEBRATE when life brings you something yummy?
Celebrate? WHAT? What’s that? I don’t have time to celebrate!
If any of the answers above sound familiar… you’re not alone.
With all the buzz of New Years Eve just behind us… the topic of how we celebrate has come up and I decided what better time to discuss celebration and it’s effects to our overall health and happiness.
SO many of us work SO hard to ‘BE’ the person we think we should be, who our parents want us to be, our restaurant man/woman… even our society, that I am not sure we are even in touch with what it means to celebrate. We work on our goals, and when the new year comes around again, we set up new goals (or revive old ones) in an effort to keep achieving.
But what about celebrating?
The dictionary defines ‘to Celebrate’= to proclaim, to make known publicly, to praise widely or to present to widespread and favorable public notice…. AN UNINHIBITED GOOD TIME.
As your unofficial coach, It doesn’t feel right to put parameters on what celebrating looks like, or a list of what you should or shouldn’t do when celebrating.
I purely want to bring the topic to the surface.
I always ask my clients “How do you celebrate that?”… and inevitably, the answer usually stumps them.
It’s actually become an important part of my practice.
We don’t know HOW to celebrate, or more importantly…What it even looks like when we decide we want to.
A little bit, if you don’t already know about me. My birthday is on New Years Eve. I LOVE my birthday and I’ve just realized why.
It’s one of a handful of days when we give ourselves PERMISSION to celebrate.
*Okay, there are plenty of those out there who are anti-New Years Eve, who take a more “It’s just another day” kinda stance and for that I TOTALLY respect you.
But for me.. I LOVE the energy buzzing around me all day, people are getting ready to get dressed up, have people over, or settle in for a night at home. Either way… there is this electricity in the air that I love. *On top of the multiple happy birthday phone calls, texts, emails and Facebook messages that I receive that just keeps the energy flowing…
I’ve been to Times Square for New Years Eve. My 20th and my 21st birthday. The only way to define it is ELECTRIFYING. All these people, in such a small space, with one aim…
… to RING IN the new year.
Talk about celebration!
But what about the everyday reasons to celebrate?
What about celebrating just for the sake of celebrating?
How do we even begin to wrap our heads around HOW to celebrate?
It’s something I’ve been giving a LOT of thought too this past year, I want to share with you my OWN thoughts on why we have trouble celebrating and how to begin reframing the way we think about it.
Myth: We think that celebrating occurs only on special occasions. (Think New Years Eve or your birthday)
Thought: We’re worried about what everyone ELSE would think of us, that what if we celebrated with more regularity… “‘They’ll’ think I’m weird if I celebrate.” So we’ve built in these occasions that we don’t have to worry about that so much, so we can ‘let down our hair’… to appear “normal” (a word I detest!) BUT…What if celebrations were a part of ALL of our everyday lives? How would that change things if we KNEW everyone was doing it?
Myth: Celebrating means doing something BIG and over the top (Think Times Square in NYC or a HUGE themed birthday party), or LOTS of investment (time, energy… money?).
Thought: What if celebrating only took 3 seconds. No really… 3 seconds, and NOONE else knew you were celebrating but YOU. Keep reading.
Myth: You only celebrate once you reach your goals. (BIG ONE… most of us feel this way about celebrating)
Thought: How would it change things if we thought of celebrating WHILE reaching our goals is like stopping for a break of water while running a race? Would we feel like we could give ourselves permission then? If it was something necessary for us to even reach our goal?
Myth: Only selfish (or rich) people constantly celebrate.
Thought: Again, it’s about permission. If I were rich or self-absorbed… then it would be OKAY for me to celebrate. (A “Shoot, if I was rich and all my “problems” were gone, I’d FINALLY have a reason to celebrate!” mentality. – sound familiar?) What if we dared ourselves to think that WE TOO, deserve to celebrate too!?
Myth: Celebrating doesn’t change the situation I’m in.
Thought: Okay… but what if it TEMPORARILY gives you RELIEF from your situation? Would it be okay then? and even before that (here comes a virtual slap… you ready?)
What evidence do you have that it won’t change your situation?
Most likely… you don’t have any evidence.
What if you gave it a try, a REAL hearty try for a week and see if you can find some evidence?
*Consider this your New Years Resolution. Hey, at least I’m not asking you to take anything away, like on a diet. I’m asking you to ADD to your life, something that MIGHT (you do not currently know) change your whole day. (Basically… I double dog dare ya.)
Okay, Okay… I give! I’ll try it for a week if you’ll give me some ideas on how to celebrate.
I thought you’d never ask! Now comes the fun part!!! Here are just a handful of PRACTICAL ideas (for me, they gotta be practical, easy to do things in order for me to make them a new habit) to consider… AND… I’ll make them only 3 seconds long and if chosen, YOU will be the only one who knows you’re celebrating.
Ready?
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Every morning, after taking that first sip of coffee, tea, Diet Coke, etc… close your eyes and look up… SAY out loud (or in your head)….BLISS.
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When you get an email/text/FB message from a friend (or someone you are excited to hear from) – SAY out loud or in your head… I’M IMPORTANT!!!
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If you realize you’re having a good hair day, or our outfit looks good – look in the mirror and pretend, for 3 seconds.. that a photographer is taking a few pics of you… SMILE FOR THE CAMERA!
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When 5 o’clock hits and you’re shutting off your 9-5 computer…. pretend you’re at the end of a performance and, in front of your computer…. TAKE A BOW!!
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When you hear something ANYTHING that makes you happy – do one of three things: 1. say AMEN!! 2. Do a twirl 3. put your hands in the air and say YEA!
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Stop what you’re doing, for 3 seconds, look at something that makes you happy and SMILE.
- After yet ANOTHER day of handling SO much; taking care of the kiddos, the 9-5, running to the grocery, hitting the gym, paying the bills, patience with the restaurant man/woman… for 3 seconds say WHATEVER comes to your mind… with conviction… with PRIDE! *Yes, even if it’s F^&K!!! My recommendations are : I DID IT! I ROCK! ONE DAY DOWN! I CAN HANDLE ANYTHING!!!
- Before going to bed, straighten all the sheets and blankets out before you get into it. Then Jump in!
Finally, celebrating isn’t about having a BIG moment. For my birthday, everyone asked me how I’m celebrating. I went out to lunch with one girlfriend, a movie with another girlfriend and then head home for an evening with myself (as most of you also were solo that night too), my kitty girl, and the energy that my friends and family are thinking of me today, that so many people ARE giving themselves permission to celebrate, and that I have so much to be grateful for. THAT ALONE.. filled me up with a sense of peaceful energy that actually being in Time Square could match. CELEBRATION.
So let me ask you….
