Do You See Your Birthday as a New Level or New Devil?
Your birthday is your personal new year
You always have a choice when it comes to your personal New Year
Approach with sadness and sorrow or approach with excitement for both what has been and what has come before
Make new choices and decisions
Mostly I see three approaches to birthdays:
· Joy
· Dread
· Utter nonchalance
These are, respectively, positive, negative, and neutral.
New level or new devil?
Like in gaming this is a chance to “level up”
Gain more experience points, hit points, skills, and so on
Or you can see it as a new descent
Aging, new pains, new concerns
Closer to the end than the beginning
Self-awareness lets you choose
It is with and through self-awareness that you can choose if this is a new level or new devil
· What am I thinking?
· What am I feeling?
· How am I feeling?
· What am I doing?
· What are my intentions?
We get to choose who, what, where, how, and why we are – here and now. That’s how mindfulness and conscious awareness work to balance us.
Zero impact birthday
It is also perfectly acceptable to see your birthday as just another day of the week/month/year. It need not be a new level or new devil. It just is
This week’s Applied Guidance for Mindfulness Tool:
This week – do at least one very special thing for yourself.
The thing you choose to do might cost some money – or not. But that’s your choice. If there is something special that will make you feel good – be mindful and do it.
This could include:
· Indulge in a unique meal
· Take a bubble bath
· Get a massage
· Take a mental health day from work
· Go for a drive to somewhere special
· Give yourself time to and for yourself
These are just a few ideas – but mindfully making this kind of choice with a tangible impact of some sort opens us to making choices with more intangible or delayed results.
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