Читать книгу Little Indulgences - Cynthia MacGregor - Страница 6

Today is a special day.

Okay, so maybe it's not your birthday. Or the anniversary of your wedding (or divorce). Or the day you start your dream job. Or your child's birthday. Or a national holiday. Or any other milestone.

But why can't it be a special day anyhow?

Any day can be a special day if you want it to be. You give special treats to the other people who are important to you. You buy them little gifts or cook them special foods. But aren't you important too? Certainly you deserve special treatment sometimes.

The treat you give yourself doesn't have to be an all-day thing (although it could be). Sometimes just a quick pick-me-up, ten minutes spent doing something special, something meaningful, something nice for yourself is all you need to turn an ordinary day, or even a “down” day, into a special day. Just to give you a heads-up, I've marked some of these with the little clock for Instant Indulgences. I recommend you pick one and do it right away.

Sometimes, we all need a special day. Sometimes it's to help us get over the blues. Sometimes it's to help us get over the blahs. Sometimes it's because we're in a celebratory mood and need an occasion to celebrate. Sometimes it's because we have an occasion to celebrate and need a way to do it. And sometimes it's “just because.” Whatever your reason (although you don't have to have one at all), if you need or want a special day, there are plenty of ways to give yourself one. Ways that are extravagant, ways that are budget-priced, ways that are completely cost-free. Things you can do alone or with a friend, at home or away, quietly or exuberantly. I've indicated these with the calendar page for All Day Indulgences. Mark your calendar now. When can you devote a whole day to yourself? Choose an all-dayer and make a date with yourself.

Some of the indulgences in this book are the Reward Over Time kind. Begin an exercise program today and you'll reap benefits—some now and some over time. Ditto starting a more healthy diet. Or beginning to keep a journal.

And then there are those times when the best thing you can do for yourself is to do something for someone else. These I call Generous Indulgences.

This book is filled with indulgences—treats and activities for every taste and budget. Open it up at random when you're feeling down. Use it as a planning tool. That's right, you should actually plan to be good to yourself. Keep it handy for that inevitable day when you want to treat yourself but you're feeling so blue or bored or tired that you're fresh out of inspiration.

Feel free to improvise. Start a list of your own indulgences. But, whatever you do, be good to yourself. Today can be your special day. (And so can tomorrow, if you want.)

Throw yourself a half-birthday party.

Call an old friend you haven't talked to in ages, catch up, and yak at length.

Write a poem about someone you love—your beloved, a close friend, a family member. As you write it, you'll remember all the things you love about that person, and why he or she is so special to you.

Exercise. Do your regular exercise routine or start a new one. Rent or borrow exercise tapes, go for a walk, learn yoga, play golf, do some sit-ups, or just run up and down the stairs ten times.

Have your legs waxed.

Treat yourself to a session at a tanning salon, or buy a nice self-tanning product (safer!)—especially if you have the midwinter blahs.

Volunteer your time to the local headquarters of your preferred political party or, if it's election time, the headquarters of your favorite candidate (local or national). Knowing that you're making a difference in how the government is run will make a difference in how you feel about yourself.

Have your car washed, waxed, and detailed.

Send flowers to the local nursing home—it will make you feel fabulous.

Go away for the weekend. You don't have to go far, and it doesn't have to be expensive. Visit someone special, or stay at a quaint inn. Bring a friend or go alone. What you need is a change of scene, a change of pace.

Buy yourself a bunch of helium balloons and turn them loose all over your house. Have a little fun and bat one around. Then walk through the park and give them away to passersby.

Cook a new food—one you've never even attempted before. It doesn't have to be as exotic as alligator meat, buffalo steaks, or chocolate-covered ants. It could be beef or chicken cooked in a sauce you've never dared to try.

Learn a new computer skill or program.

Learn to belly dance.

Mark a memory. Sit at the computer or curl up with a notepad and a good pen and remember—in exquisite detail—one of the most wonderful things that's ever happened to you. It could be your first kiss, your wedding day, a surprise birthday party that truly was a surprise. Dwell on how wonderful you felt then and feel those emotions returning now.

Get all of your jewelry professionally cleaned.

Plant something special in your yard—a fruit tree, a fragrant bush that blossoms in your favorite color, or some brightly cheerful flowers. Think of the pleasures you'll have from it in the years to come—and how it will improve your property's looks and value.

Decide you're going to learn to play an instrument (another instrument if you play one already). Buy an inexpensive electronic musical keyboard (the kind that simulates any instrument) or rent an electric guitar or even a harp. It's never too late.

Infuse the air in your home with a sweet scent—spray a cool light bulb with perfume, turn on the light, and let the warmth of the bulb spread the scent through the air.

Buy all new bras and panties!

Rent or borrow a convertible on a day when you have a lot of local errands to do or wish to visit a friend who lives an hour away. Put the top down, of course!

Make a cave, or a fort, or a play house.

Drape a sheet over a table.

Put down some pillows.

Crawl in with a good book.

Or a snack.

Or your favorite stuffed animal.

(If your kids are nice to you, you might let them in!)

Have your initials painted on your car in elegant, large letters.

Go to a salon and have your eyebrows professionally shaped.

Host a Recipe-Exchange Party

Tired of cooking the same old dishes? You don't need to buy a whole new cookbook. Call up a group of friends and organize a recipe exchange! Since you're the hostess, you can specify that each guest bring only main courses, or only desserts, or only “sides,” or only chicken recipes—or you can ask each guest to bring recipes enough for a complete meal. Let your guests know how many will be coming and ask them to make that many copies of each of the recipes they're bringing. You could even make the get-together a potluck, with each guest bringing one of the dishes for which she's contributing a recipe.

Put your spare change in other people's expired parking meters. You will smile knowing that in a small way you are someone's guardian angel.

Get your bellybutton pierced, if that's appealing to you.

Start a gratitude notebook. (A small, inexpensive notebook you can carry in your bag works just as well as a fancy journal.) List all the things you are grateful for. Add to your notebook from time to time. And read it over when you feel like life is dealing you a nasty hand.

Rearrange the furniture in one of the rooms of your house. Make the room more practical, workable, or more aesthetically pleasing, or just highlight a piece of furniture you're proud of.

Suit yourself.

Please yourself.

Have fun.

Hire a limousine to drive you and someone special to dinner.

See if you can still play the ball-bouncing games of your childhood, like “A, My Name Is Alice.” If you don't have a Spaldeen (pink rubber ball), a tennis ball will do just as well.

Read some young adult fiction, such as Nancy Drew or Harry Potter.

Give yourself permission to procrastinate.

Learn how to make candy at home.

Go vintage-clothing shopping. Buy a fabulous trench coat or fancy dress.

List all the ways you are a nice (or interesting, or smart, or loyal) person. Now, record this list in your own voice and keep the tape on hand to play back whenever you need that reminder.

Write down the details of your favorite childhood toy to preserve the memory for your kids or grandkids (even if you don't have any of either yet).

Work up a clown routine and experiment with suitable clothes and makeup. Now you can entertain at parties, volunteer to visit hospitalized kids, cheer up the residents at nursing homes, and bring happiness wherever you go in your costume—whether it's a do-good effort, a paid performance, or just for fun.

Buy a single carnation (or rose, or other flower) and place it in a bud vase in the center of your dining room table (or in some other location in your home where you'll see it often).

Start a house-decorating scrapbook—cut out pictures from magazines that inspire you and fantasize about your perfect home.

Wash your hair, and take the time to give yourself a thorough scalp massage while you wash it. Better yet, get a friend to do it for you.

Go out in the backyard and throw a Frisbee.

Buy yourself some expensive chocolates from an upscale candy shop—where you can pick exactly what you want. (No more, “Ugh . . . raspberry!” when you're looking for butter cream!)

Throw a tea party and ask each person to bring two of their favorite herbs or spices. Then have everyone create exotic, new tea blends from all the different ingredients offered.

Do an Internet search to find a childhood friend you've lost touch with.

Take a small child to the petting zoo. You pet and feed the animals, too.

Write down or record the story of a pet you had as a child. If you didn't have a real pet, did you have an imaginary one? If you didn't have an imaginary one then, would you like one now?

Buy yourself half a dozen plants for your house, including at least a couple of plants that flower or have colorful leaves.

This morning, fix your hair and makeup extra-nice, as if you were going out somewhere special, even though it's just an ordinary day. Now, take a good, long look at yourself in the mirror. It doesn't feel like just an ordinary day anymore, does it?

Hire a window-washer and get your windows sparkling.

Set aside a Sunday morning to cook and freeze a week's worth of dinners. (Choose recipes for foods that freeze well.) Now you'll have a “night off” from cooking every day for the next week—or for any seven days, not necessarily consecutive, that you choose.

Rent a horse from a local stable for an hour's trail ride.

Give some time to a charitable or other do-good effort. Be a “Big Sister,” teach an adult to read, or simply stuff envelopes for a fund-raising drive for the local library or homeless shelter. By doing good for others, you'll feel great about yourself!

Start an herb-garden outdoors or on your windowsill.

Deep condition your hair.

Your Mysterious Admirer

If you're single, order a bouquet of flowers sent to yourself at work—or even one bouquet every other day for a week. When your co-workers ask who the bouquet was from, you can answer (in all honesty), “There was no card.” Let them wonder who cares about you enough to send you flowers. Let them speculate on your Mysterious Admirer. Let them see you in a whole new light.

Dig out your old photo albums and just reminisce alone, with your special someone, with your mom, or with your best friend.

Buy a big, floppy men's shirt to wear yourself.

Go to a karaoke bar and sing!

If you don't have a regular cleaning person, hire a housecleaning service to come in and thoroughly clean your home.

After washing your hair, dry it in the sunshine.

Host a Christmas-in-July party. Get folks to bring gifts for homeless children.

Write yourself coupons for special treats—a shopping spree, a milkshake, a new blouse.

Take singing lessons.