With Valentine's Day looming, there's a whole lot of lovey dovey flair and terms of endearment floating around in the world right now. Of course, cupid's favorite holiday is supposed to be about the love you share with another person, but I'm more concerned with how we're all showing love to ourselves.
Can you think of 5 ways you've treated yourself lovingly lately?
Being conscious of how you're doing it is key because when you love on a less-than-conscious level (like we all sometimes do) it's far too easy to express affection through things like excessive chocolate consumption, one too many glasses of wine, or the accrual of slightly terrifying credit card balances. Desperate for that feeling of self-care, we often slip into modes that seem to be all about nice treats, but really may not feel so nice in the long run.
On the flipside, we may be doing really wonderful things for ourselves but not recognizing them in the moment—thus nixing some of the positive effects of the love. Treating yourself to a bubble bath or a run on the beach or even an early bedtime can have a much greater impact when you stop and acknowledge the action as a gift you are giving yourself.
Today after slaving away on a not-so-fun writing project for many hours, I decided I wanted to give myself a break—and show myself a little love. The first place my mind went was, "A glass of Pinot at 5:00 would be fantastic." But I quickly realized that was an old standby that wasn't necessarily the best way to show myself some adoration (not that I didn't go ahead and have a glass with dinner...but that's beside the point). Instead I chose to give myself 30 free minutes to read a magazine.
And it was glorious.
In my experience, having a go-to list of things that make you feel cared for can come in handy when you're needing love the most.
Imagine what would happen if you wrote out a list and then made it a point to do one thing on that list every week—or even every day. My guess is you'd want to buy yourself flowers for being such a loyal lovebug.
Give it a try and let me know what happens. And Happy Valentine's to you!
I had the flu last week, and it lasted a couple days, but over the weekend I still didn't feel 100%, especially energy-wise. I went ahead and just let myself have two more days to recover, and then stayed in on Monday to catch up with things, rather than feel the need to go, go, go right away. Now, Tuesday and Wednesday have been fantastic, I have felt strong mentally and physically, and I am so glad I gave myself real recovery time. If not, I'd probably still be lagging.
ReplyDeleteHappy Valentine's to you! (And a special Happy Galentine's to you, too!) :)
Lesley - You're a shining example of what happens when you consciously give yourself a little love. Thanks for sharing! And I love the "Galentine's" comment. Hilarious and brilliant.
ReplyDelete