Celebrating You!

A Good Life is a Collection of Happy Moments

Dennis Waitley

Hello, My Friends.

The sun is shining, the birds are singing loudly in the grapefruit tree outside my window.

This week has been a week of ups and downs, emotions are crazy things, they make you believe the world is going to end when you hear some news you’d rather not hear. Except I know it’s not my emotions, it’s the thoughts I’m thinking about the news, that is creating those wacky feelings. As I coach myself and my crazy thoughts, I find life has more balance and is on a more even keel. I know how to feel the sad, the hurt, and the fear without it swallowing me. Also a good friend to chat with is important. I am someone who figures things out by either chatting or writing. How do you figure out the things that you’re working through?

Okay, This week I thought I’d talk about celebrating. Yes, Celebrating is really important.

When was the last time you celebrated getting out of bed? We do it effortlessly, well, some of us not so easily, some of us hit the snooze button a few times, roll over and try to catch a few more zzz’s. Some of us dread the day ahead, knowing we have another day of same ole same ole, one foot in front of the other. Drudgery has set in, boredom, discontent and a day that doesn’t promise to be satisfying. Is this how you feel in the morning when you wake up?

What if you decided tomorrow morning you would lie in bed after hitting your snooze button and wriggle your toes, stretch your arms and yawn a huge loud yawn. Then thank your body that it can move, that you can feel your toes, that you have a voice and lungs to capture your yawn. Stand up and say ‘good morning’ as enthusiastically as you can.

We have so many things to celebrate, yet we don’t even see them. We see the dark, the gloomy, the ‘negative’ things that surround us. We also could see the light, the sunny, the beauty, and the ‘positive’ things that surround us. What we look for is what we tend to find.

Celebrate the smile of a child, enjoy their enthusiasm, even if it is in the form of raucous laughter, and boundless energy, or loud complaining and crying, children tend to do everything at full speed ahead, both the enjoyable and the tantrums. Celebrate them, find the joy in it, this time will pass and it’ll become a memory of “remember when”.

Celebrate, get together with friends and talk about the good things in your life, the things that have gone right.

I have found that most people tend to be really hard on themselves, beating themselves up for something they said or didn’t say and should have. Maybe you’re on a diet and have decided that, this is the week you won’t have cake. When one of your work colleagues has a birthday and celebrates with a cake for everyone. The dialogue in your head goes something like, ‘One piece won’t hurt’ ‘You said today you weren’t eating cake’ ‘It looks so good’ “She’ll be offended if I don’t have a piece.” ‘Go on you know you want a slice.’

You have two choices, to have a slice of cake- and make it a small one, or to walk away. In either situation, your mind is going to run through everything you did wrong. That’s how our minds are wired, they look for the danger, the harmful, what is not as it ought to be. We can teach our minds a better way. By learning to look at what is right, you can celebrate that you had a small piece of cake, and then make adjustments with your food later in the day. ( You never get thinner by being mean to yourself, be kind), and if you walked away, you can feel proud that you honored your agreement with yourself and give yourself a pat in the back. It is this small celebratory step that will empower you to make the next good choice, and before long you are on your way to being your slender self. From a place of self love, and self respect.

Celebrations are for all the little wins you have every day, the ones that go unnoticed by anyone else, but you know you chose to respond rather than react. You put the extra effort into the power point presentation, and you crushed it. You chose to drink water, for your health. You decided to go for a walk at lunch time instead of listening to everyone complaining about their spouses. You smiled at the receptionist who is snowed down with with demands of customers and is feeling stressed.

Celebrations are for the big things too. Like purchasing a home, having a baby, getting engaged and getting married. We tend to create events for the “big” milestones in our lives, and forget to celebrate the everyday things.

Personally, celebrating was not something I did for myself, I would celebrate the big events, of birthdays, weddings, and purchasing a new home. However I would forget to celebrate and enjoy the warmth of the sun on my back. My focus was on getting through life, keeping the house clean, raising kids, keeping them fed and clothed, earning a living to pay the bills, always looking at the next job on my to do list, which never seemed to end. I had my head down and was working to create a better life, but never enjoying the one I was living.

Life has a way of kicking you in the butt, derailing you from the mundane, making space for you to see what you have already got and teaching you to be grateful you have it. I believe we are here to enjoy our time on earth, we have the choice to lift our heads and see the flowers, see the love and joy around us. We have the ability to make space in our busy daily grind, to raise our heads and celebrate the beauty, the funny, the orderly.

Celebrate, get to know yourself. Get to know what makes you laugh genuinely, Get to know what you love? What always gives you that lift in your spirit? What gives that feeling of peace inside? Celebrate these things and surround yourself with them.

Celebrate the skills you have, the wins you have. Give yourself a pat on the back, and tomorrow when you get out of bed, celebrate a new day, celebrate new choices, celebrate being you.

Until next time, celebrate your life every day. It’s the only you have. Be your authentic self, and shine.

Linda Codlin.

PS If you want to know more about how you can celebrate being yourself, now so you can have the tomorrow of your dreams.

Email me for coaching at.

authenthiclivingwithlinda@gmail.com