Praise & Celebrate Where You Are
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Photo by: Rachael Lorraine Grosz Jones, Soulquestt, karekare beach, new zealand, october 2019
How often do you stop to celebrate the big and small victories in life? Or better yet, how often do you celebrate your journey and where you are now?
It’s easy to celebrate life when things are going well and you’ve achieved something you’ve been working towards or you’ve reached a milestone such as a birthday or an anniversary.
What about the ordinary moments in life?
One of my favorite things to witness with my littles is how excited they get about everything. They love to celebrate! Whether it’s going poop in the potty (I don’t think I would’ve imagined this as a celebration before living with a family…), losing a tooth, getting a new outfit, reaching a new level on a game…kids never run out of things to celebrate. My 7-year-old niece has been talking about her birthday and how she’s going to celebrate…since her last birthday. Her 8th birthday is in October and every day, she updates her list with what she wants and how she wants to celebrate. It’s endearing to witness.
As adults, it’s easy to get caught up in the daily grind and hustle of life.
Even when we do reach a new milestone or complete a project we’ve been pouring our soul into, we rarely take time to celebrate. Perhaps we toast a glass of champagne or do a happy dance, but then it’s time to get back to work. There’s always more to do. When I started climbing my mountain (aka this 30-day blog challenge), someone responded to me, “When you reach the top, keep climbing.” I understand the sentiment…this person sees a lot in me and wants me to keep climbing. But how about taking a moment to enjoy the view and soak in the effort it took to reach the top?
I’ve worked with several different coaches who don’t let the time to celebrate pass by. My former coach, Darla, begins every call, workshop, or retreat by saying, “Let’s taken some celebrations! Who has something to celebrate?” And what I love about this is it causes each person to take a close look at their past week and what they accomplished. Sometimes it’s quiet with everyone just staring down or staring at each other. We’re all quietly thinking to ourselves, “I don’t have anything to celebrate.” And then finally someone will break the ice and share.
Celebrations can come from any achievement, accomplishment, or moment of joy.
Honestly, some days I celebrate getting out of bed. While other times, I’m celebrating completing a challenge or project. The beauty with celebrating is that neither celebration is great than the other. The more we make celebrating part of our lives, the more we’ll have to celebrate.
At the beginning of this week, I wrote the question, “How will I celebrate the completion of my blog challenge?” on my to do list. I have 3 blogs left to write after this one (eek!). The fact that I’ve written 27 blogs in this challenge is a win in itself. Yet, the question has remained on my list, unchecked and unanswered.
This morning I sat for my daily meditation and chose a guided one called Connecting to Your Intuition. The meditation was super grounding and went through a body scan and breath work. Towards the end of the meditation, the facilitator asked the question:
What do I need to give myself more of starting today?
PRAISE.
That was the word that immediately entered my mind. The facilitator prompted beforehand not to judge what answer comes and to write it down when the meditation was complete. So I did just that. I did notice myself a bit surprised that ‘Praise’ was my response. When I wrote it down though, it made so much sense. This one word led me down a path of thinking about how often I praise myself for all of my wins whether big or small. How often do I actually stop to praise my journey and where I am? Or praise my dedication to living a life of transformation? Or praise all of the adversities I’ve overcome? Or praise the fact that I LOVE my life?
It was certainly eye opening for me.
Even when you’re not having a good day, find one thing to celebrate. Even during times of waiting and wondering when “it” is going to happen, find some way to celebrate and praise who you are and how far you’ve come! The more you praise your journey and celebrate your milestones, the more there will be to celebrate!
For me, I’m still thinking about how I’m going to celebrate the completion of my blog challenge. I’m sensing a luxurious bath and dram of Scotch will be part of it.