Not Just Another Day

Today is my 37th birthday.  I have never been a big fan of celebrating my own birthday, however I do love celebrating other people's birthdays. It is not an issue of aging, to me age is just another number.  For me it has always been an issue of being uncomfortable in the spotlight. I have for so long focused on my flaws and my failures that I forgot to look for my own best attributes. These past six months of learning massage, I have also learned that it is important that I value myself. If I don't value myself, then no one else will either. So from now on my birthday is not just another day, it is a day for me to celebrate all I have accomplished, who I have become and where I am headed in life. I am grateful that I have found people to surround myself with who will help me to remember that I am worthy.

In this next year I am headed down a slightly uncertain path. I am studying for the New York State Massage Therapy Boards so I can receive my license to practice. I will open my own business for women in all stages of the birth cycle and I will make sure my family is in a more stable financial situation. 

I am excited to be doing something that makes me smile, and I am endeavoring to remember to do the things that make me happy. I am going to attempt a number of craft projects and home improvement projects. Many of the projects have been on my mind but I haven't even attempted them because I have always worried about failure. If I never started then I didn't fail. But for my 38th year of life I am going to change the way I look at those projects. I ONLY fail if I don't try the projects. 

Changing the way I think is a goal for my next year. I have always tried to give people the benefit of the doubt, not to judge and not to gossip. I am however human and I fall into bad habits, so for the next 365 my goal is not to judge and not to gossip.

I am also taking Thanksgiving to every Thursday of the year. Every Thursday I am going to list the things I am Thankful for from the previous week and that which I am Thankful for going into the next week. That which we look for, we find. 

Never again will I allow my birthday to pass without at least my own celebration of where I am in life. 

I did not write this post for people to leave nice comments and tell me good things about myself. I wrote this post because I know I have spoken to many people (most of whom are women) who struggle with valuing and celebrating themselves. There is always some guilt associated with self celebration and self valuation, as if that doing so takes away from another. Instead I believe there is enough, enough praise, enough good, enough celebration to go around, and much like the flame that is not diminished by lighting another candle, the more we celebrate, the more we praise, the more there will be to go around. 

How are you going to celebrate and value yourself this week, this month, this year of your life?