Welcome back onto our mindfulness journey. After last week, I hope that you are seeing some progression in your journey as you take the time to develop the necessities needed to reset your mind into becoming who you want to be. Much like learning how to go about this process, I started to mention last week the importance of rewarding yourself as you go through the journey. Referring to last time, we need to reward ourselves with words of encouragement and fuel for our soul. Furthering this idea, it is also important to treat yourself.
Similarly to how one person gets another person flowers as a gift, in life it is also important to get yourself flowers sometimes–both literally and metaphorically. If you are anything like me, you tend to have a help everyone before yourself mentality, but I have learned that this should not always be the case. We spend most of our time wanting to be that person that is there for others, but who is there for ourselves? It has to be YOU.
This practice, much like the other ones, is not an easy one. Personally, as seen in the picture above, flowers make me have the biggest smile on my face. They represent so much beauty and life, which instills a positive mindset for a long-lasting time after receiving them. Although I know this to be true, for the longest time I would only be able to experience these moments of happiness very rarely due to the event of someone actually giving me flowers. It was not until a coffee shop that I regularly go to started selling farm-fresh flowers on the weekends, that I realized I should not have to wait for someone else to make me happy, but rather treat myself to the happiness that I ultimately deserve.
Now this realization has only been a recent one which is why I feel as if it is so important to share on our journey. Mindfulness is not an entirely mental process, but rather a combination of training your mind to be on the right tracks AND establishing moments of enjoyment into your life through physical being. I understand that not everyone gets as happy as I do when they get flowers, so I ask you to think about the things that make you happy. Is it artwork, books, music records, food, etc.? Take a moment and establish a way that you can treat yourself periodically to maintain the feeling of enjoyment solely through yourself and the life you are living.
As I wrap up this week’s journey, I challenge you to take the time between now and the next time we talk to work on treating yourself. Maybe it is as simple as buying yourself something or maybe it is more complicated and requires you to assess what you physically need right now in this moment of time. Whatever it shall be, I assure you it is worthwhile to go out of your way and celebrate the person you are.
With peace,
Elizabeth
I really like the idea of treating yourself every now and then. I think it is super important and many people forget to do it. I personally do it a lot, maybe too often. My bank account is like “you don’t need to keep treating yourself you need to pay your car insurance”. But I’d rather over treat myself than under treat myself. Good work on your blog! I feel like your topic is good especially for college kids.
This weeks topic was interesting and I liked how you approached it. I never really associated mindfulness with treating yourself, but you demonstrate how important it is. Your blog is always insightful and calming to read and I love how it allows me to evaluate my own mental state.
I agree with your outlook on life in this piece. People definitely should treat themselves every now and then because life gets hectic sometimes. We are always on the up and go. This makes it easy to forget what we need most at the given moment. I think that relationships go both ways. Your real friends will definitely check up on you. I wish you the very best.