“The most fortunate are those who have a wonderful capacity to appreciate again and again, freshly and naively, the basic goods of life, with awe, pleasure, wonder, and even ecstasy.”
- Abraham Maslow
Christmas is the season of giving. We spend a lot of time and energy preparing for the holiday, buying presents, making plans, baking, celebrating… doing the things that we want to do in order make people we care about feel good. Most of the time, we do this because we want to share our gratitude and our love for them.
When we really stop and think about it, we have a lot of things to be grateful for. In fact, the thank you’s typically tend to flow quite freely to those around us who have helped us through challenging times or who have taught us something great about ourselves or our life. We are thankful for our parents, our siblings, our spouse, friends, family, coworkers, the guy who bags our groceries… pretty much everyone except the most obvious, most important person of all… ourselves.
At first read, that may seem selfish, but to appreciate one’s self is actually the biggest gift of all, because if we can appreciate ourselves… like really really appreciate ourselves for who we are, only then can we really appreciate all the wonderful people and things around us.
Now, I will say for myself that this is an area that I have been working on for quite some time. I’ve come a long way, and today I feel so much more comfortable and confident in my own skin that I ever have been in the past. But I can always improve on the appreciation I have for who I am.
Given that it is Christmas time, I figure what better gift can I give to myself, and consequentially to those around me, than 25 days of pure self-acceptance. Complete celebration of the things about myself that I am grateful for — from my head to my toes, inside and out…
And I thought, since this is an area that a lot of us forget to take time to remember, I will share my daily self-appreciation thoughts with you.
So… starting tomorrow, in addition to my Countdown to Christmas with 25 Days of Clean Eating Challenge I am going to list one thought of self-appreciation daily (so keep checking back if you are interested in following along). For the first few days I am going to have to double up though, so I can get on track to finish on Christmas Day.
I’m really excited to share these thoughts with you. My hope is that in doing so, I may be able to inspire you to see the awesomeness inside of you as well.
If you feel a burst of your own appreciation and you want to share, feel free to do so and leave a comment below!
“When I started counting my blessings, my whole life turned around.” – Willie Nelson
Read my 25 Days of Self-Appreciation here
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great post! who can’t benefit from a little self acceptance?
Great post, as always. For Christmas, I want to give myself to healthiest state of mind & body by (A) stressing LESS; and (B) eating MORE and moving LESS. Contrary to most people’s goals, I know.
You go girl!
Superb idea Sheila! And it’s so true….how can we love (appreciate) others if we don’t love (appreciate) ourselves first?! We as women, especially, can be so hard on ourselves…we beat ourselves up because we don’t accomplish everything in a day that we want to, or we don’t love our bodies as they are this minute (we take for granted that we can eat, laugh, breathe, walk, run….even if perhaps we still have a few pounds we may want to lose), etc., etc..
So, to get caught up with my own 25 Days of Self-Appreciation let me state what I’m thankful for now:
1) I’m grateful for my health…I am healthy and vibrant and can do so much for myself and others!
2) I am grateful for my corny sense of humor….this helps me keep things in perspective and not take myself or situations too seriously, which I can tend to do sometimes (many times in fact!! It is so good to laugh!!
3) I am grateful for my age….I only recently turned 41 and feel I am at the best time in my life!! Having a few years up in age has garnered me more wisdom and self-assurance…not too bad, eh?!
4) I am grateful for my legs (they are still not 100% trim and toned like I’m working on them to be but they work! The get me out of bed in the morning, on the treadmill, out the door, jumping jacks, etc.! Where would I be without my legs? I do not take them for granted at all, especially after seeing someone on my recent vacation to Sedona, AZ who had had both legs amputated below the knees and with metal prosthectics in place. They were still out hiking which was so awesome! So, that really puts things in perspective…I’m grateful for my legs!)
Okay, that catches me up through today, day 4 (or really, Day 22 counting down…)
xx Mary Bess
MB – right on! What a great start. I love that you mention your legs, because that is EXACTLY what I mean. We forget how fortunate we are to have LEGS, and when you put it in that perespective, the focus on the imprefections falls away so fast. I’m so excited you are joining me on this. It’s such a big part of achieving our goals yet we tend to skim over it because it’s not a tangible/measurable action like running for 30 minutes, etc. Cheers to 22 more days of self-love!
This was a great post. I have a long corridor I have to walk to get to my Radiation Oncology department at work. I have made it a habit that during this walk (every day, with each step) to remind myself what I am grateful for. But, your right, they are usually external things.
I will join you in this challenge starting off with my most recent benign breast biopsy result in which I am VERY grateful for. So I’m grateful for my healthy breasts…as weird as that may sound. I’m grateful for my resourcefulness which has gotten me through a tough single motherhood. Grateful for my laid back attitude that has helped me through stressful situations. Grateful for my ability to forgive.
This really makes one think about oneself…I’m so used to thinking of others… Have a great day!
Mary – Hooraay for healthy boobies (have you seen those breast cancer awareness shirts that say “I love boobs”? lol). I’m so glad to hear that you are joining me as well!! Keep me posted on how your 25 days go.
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