Many Ways to Celebrate!

My birthday is this month (August) and I am doing something new for me.  Several weeks ago I decided that I would not only celebrate my birthday on the actual day but that I would celebrate in some way each day of the month in honor of my life.  I thought this was such a unique idea, although since telling some people about it, I did learn that another gal has been doing something like this herself — and good for her!

When I first told my husband Wayne that I was going to celebrate each day, you should have seen the look on his face — priceless!  Of course, he thought I would be doing something big each day or spending a lot of money each day.  And, no that isn’t what I am doing.  Yes, there are a couple of days that I have plans to go out to dinner, I’m setting an evening to go see a “chick flick” with a couple of girlfriends, I’m scheduled for a manicure and a pedicure later this week and I will certainly buy myself something along the way, although I haven’t thought of what just yet!  However, for the most part my celebrations are small yet meaningful to me. 

For instance, Monday (yesterday) I celebrated by giving myself total permission to NOT do any exercise and not even think about it or feel guilty for not doing any.  Normally my mind would wander to the “Gee, I could be exercising and that would be good for me”.  Nope, not this time.  Over the weekend I celebrated in several ways:  I met some acquaintances for lunch at a new restaurant and later had friends over for dinner.  Now when our friends were to be arriving, my extra celebration was to loosen up on my standards.   Typically I would have everything all set and ready before they arrived even though they are long-time friends.  This time I was not even close to being prepared, in fact I had just arrived home from the luncheon 30 minutes before they arrived!

In our book, Lynn and I talk about giving yourself permission to do or simply be.  What we mean is that it’s okay to give yourself permission to let go of old judgments and beliefs (like my belief that I must exercise on Mondays and my judgment if I don’t) as well as giving yourself permission to make a mistake or do something different.  That’s something else I just realized I can celebrate today.  I forgot my wallet when I left home to go out to lunch and do some shopping this afternoon.  I drove back home and laughed about it instead of getting frustrated….yes, I can celebrate the ease and flexibility I exhibited in that situation and the ease with which I accepted that my mistake was okay.

What are some of the ways you can celebrate?

Julie Molner