Sometimes we can all be a little hard on ourselves. I am definitely the first one to admit this. There were days where i didn’t see any beauty in myself, which in turn I didn’t see much beauty in the world. You just have to step back and give yourself a break every once in a while. I DID! And i’m learning to live life each day to the fullest, appreciating the little pleasures hidden in the everyday grind.
Everyone deserves to live a happy life, and appreciating the little things is a GREAT START! Doing what makes you happy is a great way to boost your self-esteem, and see how beautiful life can truly be.
Yesterday, I planned on going for a run being that the weather was perfect and getting back into my workout routine is one of my top priorities. All day I thought about it, I even talked about it, I was determined to get my miles in. But as the day went on I found things to do around the house that were far more important, at least that’s what I told myself. PROCRASTINATION! (and ill let you in on a little secret, I didn’t get much done around the house either)
Chalking up my day to being a lazy day in, not too thrilled with myself for not getting much done, I was just going to go to bed and start over the next day, DETERMINED to go on that run ;) I walked out into the living room to get a glass of water, and BAM!!! I was hit with it. The warm, sweet, chocolaty, aroma of a FRESH BAKED batch of chocolate chip cookies.
Before I could even compliment my roomie on the smell of her midnight snack, she tells me that she baked some cookies and to come help myself. Now i’m going to be honest here, my first initial reaction was exactly what i’m trying to steer away from, “YOU don’t DESERVE cookies” and the landslide of negative thoughts about myself stemmed from there. At the top of the list was “you didn’t go on your run today, how dare you eat a cookie” Followed by “you’re out of shape” and “you didn’t stick to your diet already today” Its crazy how easy one negative thought can turn into a landslide, and sooner or later you’re just beating yourself up.
At this point I took a step back and took my own advice, appreciating the little things and not being so hard on myself. My house smelled amazing and my roomie took the time and effort to bake a fresh batch of cookies. So I grabbed a pretty plate, 2 cookies, and my favorite coffee mug and filled it with some milk. (I don’t even drink milk, but when in Rome right?) And a random batch of cookies turned into a night of laughing and watching reruns of our favorite guilty pleasure, Desperate Housewives.
The point of this story is allowing myself to EAT THE DANG COOKIE turned into a fun night with my roomie, and of course catching up on the drama of our little guilty pleasure ;) I truly appreciated the little things, no matter how little they were. I appreciated my beautiful plate and goofy coffee mug and the fact that I was able to have nice things. I even appreciated the milk, even though I don’t really like milk, there was something rather refreshing about dunking a fresh baked cookie into a mug of ice cold milk. And of course I appreciated my awesome roomie!
I even was able to put my own little positive spin on consuming a bunch of sugar after midnight. It was the little bit of motivation I needed for myself to get up the next morning and go on my run. And that’s what I did. I started today off with a great run on a nice day, and with an open mind of what beauty the rest of the day had in store for me.
Give yourself the permission to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. Allow yourself the gift of doing absolutely nothing, like me on my lazy day in. And give yourself a little bit of praise when you accomplish the little things, like me on finally getting to that run. Life is too short to be so hard on ourselves so I am giving you permission to cut yourself a break and….
EAT THE COOKIE!