You are listening to the Overthinkers Guide to Joy episode 50. This is the one
where I'm going to talk all about celebrating yourself. Let's dive in.
This is a podcast for overthinkers, overdoers, and overachievers who are tired of
feeling over anxious and just want to feel better. I'm your host certified life
coach Jackie de Crinis. Hey there and welcome back. So you know,
it's really interesting. I've noticed that a lot of my clients have trouble giving
themselves permission to take care of themselves. And this is something I talk about
virtually in every episode, the importance of self -care, everything from, of course,
the basics, what I refer to as homework, which is hydration, observe your levels,
which means to eat well, and make sure you rest enough, meditate and exercise. H -O
-M -E, being the acronym for homework. But what's interesting is not only is self
-care a real challenge for so many of my clients but so many of my friends,
but what I notice is that they also tend to not wanna give themselves permission to
celebrate their success. So Again, something I talk about a lot,
you know, when we get an award or we get a promotion or we get a raise or we
get a new client there's that momentary dopamine hit where we feel excited,
proud, relieved, elated, whatever, and then we're immediately off to the next thing,
we're immediately off to the next challenge, the next hurdle, the next crisis, we
don't sit and celebrate the success we've had. And sometimes it's something we've
worked really, really, really hard for for a long time, like something we've wanted
maybe for days or weeks or years even, and we still don't celebrate ourselves.
We're always thinking about what's next and what do I need to improve and what do
I need to fix? And what's the thing that's the problem? So over the weekend,
I had celebrated my birthday and I normally don't make a huge big deal about my
birthday. Usually we go out for dinner as a family and my husband and kids will
always send me a gift or give me a gift, but it's just not a big deal.
And yet there's always a little bit of anti climax to my birthday, right? Like,
there's so much hype because it's like, you get one day a year where the day is
about you. So I think the pressure to have it be kind of perfect or kind of great
or kind of special or there to be a surprise or feels, even if you don't expect
it, you sort of feel like, oh, I hope it's a good one. And so a number of my
friends will say things like, "Well, it's my birthday month." And so that way they
just make plans with different people and celebrate their birthday all month by maybe
taking a vacation or going out to dinner, a couple of places that are special or
maybe seeing friends on one day and family on another or just celebrating themselves.
And I've always thought, "Well, that's indulgent. I could never celebrate my birthday
for a whole month. And then I thought, you know what, I'm gonna just try that. I'm
just gonna say, it's my birthday month. And anybody who asks to have lunch or
dinner or play tennis or whatever, I'm just gonna take that as part of the
celebration. And by the way, it doesn't mean that anybody has to give me a gift or
do anything like that. But just really take it as like anything that's good that
happens, I just chalk it up to, "That's because it's my birthday month." So in my
wordal /cordal group, I think I told you that I play wordal and chordal, which are
these online games through New York Times, and I have two groups that I compete
with. And all week of my birthday week, I won all my wordal /cordal battles.
And it was so much fun. One of the women in my group said, "Well, that's 'cause
it's your birthday week." And I was like, "Yeah, I'm winning 'cause it's my birthday
week." So anyway, that led to let's have cocktails and play tennis and then another
friend said, "Hey, I wanna celebrate your birthday. Let's go out for dinner." And
some extended family said, "Hey, I wanna take you out for dinner for your birthday."
And I'm like, "Yeah, I'm gonna do that." So anyway, I'm only sharing this with you
because I would like to offer that it's really fun to celebrate yourself.
And I don't mean in a self -indulgent way or a look -at -me way or a narcissistic
way. I mean it's okay to just sit in the fun of whatever is happening for you.
So if it's your birthday, great. If you've had a great business action?
Awesome. If you've come into money, celebrate it. If you're just feeling healthy,
celebrate it. So why is it so important to celebrate yourself? Well,
it's actually important for two different reasons. The first reason is the law of
attraction. The theory that the energy of our thoughts, positive or negative,
attracts experiences of the same energy to come into our lives. What's also known as
manifestation. The concept is generally summed up as like attracts like.
But the second reason that it's important to celebrate ourselves is that we're
sending conscious and unconscious messages to others that we're worth celebrating.
This is actually the same concept of why I promote self -care so much. When you
think it's important enough to make yourself a priority then other people will treat
you like a priority too. So whether or not it's your birthday, just practicing
celebrating yourself by doing things that make you happy and letting others do things
for you too. That's why I'm embracing this concept of celebrating my birthday for
the entire month, just to keep the fun going. And I invite you to find something
to celebrate this week too, whether it's a big victory or milestone, even something
small, like getting a great parking space on a crowded street, or finding a parking
meter with time on the clock, or buying something you really wanted and finding out
it was on sale after you went to pay for it. When something good happens, Can you
start thinking instead of, "Oh, that was a fluke," or, "Well,
good things don't normally happen to me," or not even registering that good thing,
can you take a pause and actually think, "Well, that was nice,
and I deserved it, and I'm going to celebrate it. I'm going to sit in the energy
that positive things happen to me and then see what happens.
I promise more great things are coming. All right friends, have a great week and
don't forget, celebrate yourself. I'll talk to you next time.
Bye for now. Thank you for listening to this episode of The Overthinker's Guide to
Joy. If you're enjoying these episodes, Please subscribe or follow this podcast so
you can always be in the know when the next episode drops. If you would like to
learn more about working with me as a coach, you can connect with me through my
website at jackiedecrinis.com. That's J -A -C -K -I -E -D -E -C -R -I -N -I -S .com.
