treat yourself well... enough with all this guilt!

Just a short post on how I think it is essential that people stop feeling guilty about treating themselves well. People always seem to need excuses to buy themselves things they like if they aren't completely 'necessary' and if they don't provide an excuse, being good to oneself in various forms is seen as somehow "outside the box" or not completely normal behavior. You don't need to get a bonus, feel like crap, have a birthday, breakup with someone, or any other reason in the world to say, ok, now I can treat myself to something I like and make myself happy.

When did self-worth and treating ourselves well go out of style?

And I'm not talking about ego here. When we speak of ourselves and give ourselves compliments above and beyond treating ourselves well, it is inherently a result of some lack of self-esteem, or need to justify our actions. Much like feeling guilty or making excuses for treating ourselves well.

It's also not about pity or feeling sorry for ourselves. It's true, sometimes a chocolate break on a rough day can turn it all around... but you also don't need to wait for a bad day to say, hey, some ice cream would make me really happy right now. period.

I am hardly above this flaw, and in fact I am posting about it because I think it is important to realize that most of us out there have work to do in this regard. Not everyone can "spoil" themselves with material goods, and sometimes we do just to show others where we stand in the hierarchy of society... but if you have it to spend... and it will make you genuinely happy... why the need to justify it? If you tell me it makes you happy, I promise I will believe you.

In short, I've made a New Year's resolution of sorts to stop justifying, both to myself and everyone around me, things that I know make me happy and that I can afford (financially, physically, mentally) to give to myself. I hope others choose to do the same. At the end of the day, we're better for everyone (ourselves included) when we're happy AND, beyond everything else...

we're worth it.