My Advice for the Day: Treat Yourself!

 Stop saving things for special occasions.

A photo from inside a LUSH store. If you haven't ever been, you should really check it out. They have really great products that are good for your skin, and all natural and vegetarian! They use all organic fruits, veggies, and even essential oils. They are also cruelty free, meaning NO animal testing. All of their products are handmade and they all smell absolutely fantastic. I really love this company. Here is a link to their website, if you're at all interested.

This is me telling you to treat yourself. Right now. That shirt you bought that you’ve been saving for the perfect occasion to rip off the tag and show it off, the classy bottle of wine or the bath bomb you purchased last week, the expensive tea you ordered online, whatever it may be, that thing you’ve been saving for a special occasion, go use it. Right now.

The idea that we save things for special occasions or events can actually be really problematic and detrimental to the way we view our daily lives, and it’s something we all do without even really putting much thought into it. The problem with this is that it perpetuates the idea that your everyday life isn’t special, which is a really unfortunate way to view things because life is so short. I have said this so many times before, but you really only get one chance to be the person you are right now, and you only get one life. It sounds like a simple concept, right? But if you only have one life, and once chance, that would stand to reason that you should want to afford yourself all of the pleasant experiences that you can. Why hold out on yourself because you feel as if the day hasn’t been ‘special’ enough?

And if too much time passes, you might find yourself thinking that no event is “special” enough, or continually telling yourself you haven’t “earned” the treat yet, furthering the idea that your everyday life is dull and boring and unworthy of praise.

I myself, was also doing it. My mother got me a gift set for Christmas from Lush of all these nice soaps and creams that were all natural, vegetarian, cruelty free, the works. They smelled amazing, but they’re expensive, so I hadn’t even touched any of them. Think about this. My mother had purchased a nice gift, for me to be able to treat myself, and I hadn’t even touched them since December, and it is now almost the end of February. And the reason was because I was saving them for a special occasion.  But occasions that could be considered special (payday, getting through a tough week of work and school, passing a really difficult test, Valentine’s Day, even) came and went and no event seemed special enough. I didn’t want to “waste” the special soaps and the special treat to myself. And then the point came where I realized that I had been saving them since Christmas. If I had held on to the special soaps for almost two months, I couldn’t just use them now.

This ideology promotes the idea that your typical life is lackluster, and/or that you have to have reached a certain level of achievement or be feeling a certain level of bad to ‘deserve’ to be able to enjoy things. If something is worth doing/seeing/eating/experiencing after you’ve had a terrible day or achieved some prestigious accomplishment, then it is worth doing/seeing or whatever it is, now. 

Don’t delay things that might brighten your day a bit, bring a little bit more joy into your life because each new morning is a privilege and should be treated as such. Your life should be something to experience and savor, not something to just grit down and endure.

Think about it, if you were to die tomorrow, there would be so many little things you could have done that would have improved the happiness in your life. You could have had a few family dinners on the “good china” simply because the dishes are beautiful and any night you get to sit down with your loved ones and enjoy a meal is special. You could have worn your favorite perfume to the grocery store because you love the smell, instead of only allowing yourself to wear it when you’re dressed up.

Don’t spend so much time living in the future and don’t place so much emphasis on the possession of the goods that provide the experience. Meaning, don’t be sad because you used up your only nice bath bomb, but instead be happy that you got to experience a nice relaxing bath. Don’t be sad that your favorite perfume is gone but remember how nice the smell was and maybe the few compliments you got on it.

Live your life to the fullest! Drink the special tea, use the special soap. Burn the incense you may have paid way too much money for. Have that expensive bottle of wine during a movie night with the girls.

Don’t get me wrong there are reasons to withhold things from yourself, for example if its something you consciously want to use sparingly or you’re using it as motivation (i.e every time I run more than two miles, I reward myself with bathing with the fancy soap, or something of that nature) or because you’re waiting to share it with someone, or if it’s something that’s really hard to replace so you want to monitor when you use it, that’s fine. It’s all about balance. But for me, at least, half the time saving things just turns into the special treat collecting dust on a shelf while I wait for the day when I convince myself I’ve somehow “earned” it, and then after waiting so long, the magic of the experience is diminished because you’ve put a material object too high up on a pedestal.

So go and cherish your life. Seize the day. Wear the pretty dress to the grocery store because you feel beautiful in it. Eat the special chocolate, smile, and move on with your special day that you have been gifted. 
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Discussion Questions:

1.  Do you ever purchase treats for yourself (like more expensive wine, or incense, or nice soaps, etc)? What are the types of things you typically enjoy treating yourself to?
2.  Are you guilty of saving these treats as described in the above text? What is an example of something you have been doing this with? Do you know anyone else who does this? Would you consider telling them about how it might bring them more joy to stop saving things for special occasions all the time?
3. Why do you think this is a habit you have?
4. What do you think you can do to change this and have a more healthy mentality toward treating yourself?
5. Do you think changing your mentality and treating each day as a special occasion could bring more joy to your life?