Wise Words: Celebrate the Moment

We’ve decided to bring back our Wise Words on Wednesdays, yippee! Now normally, I don’t coordinate the Monday Messages of Mental Health with the Wise Words Wednesdays…but I couldn’t resist when I saw these words. It just fits so nicely like they were meant to be together. So please enjoy the simpatico message.

Celebrate the Moment…
We aren’t always great at this, are we? Some moments are easier to celebrate, but some trip us up. Why? Sometimes we confused celebration with bragging, and bragging is not a favored activity or a desired personality trait; some of us have a particular aversion to bragging. But celebrating isn’t bragging. One is taking a moment to honor the work you’ve put into a particular goal, or to breathe in the goodness around you, or to recognize the gifts in your life. Each of these makes you feel good, and feeling good is nice. The other is excessive pride, typically about one’s possessions or achievements.

Another possibility is that celebrating feels premature because things in life change consistently. However it is that consistent change that makes it sensible to celebrate every moment you can when you are able to do so. Otherwise, you can put together a lot of moments, and then days, then weeks, months and even years without celebrations. And all work and no celebration makes more than a dull boy. It makes a sad life.

Perhaps you don’t feel like celebrating the moment because others are suffering. It is kind of you to have empathy for the plight of others, but you don’t want to only focus on other people. You also want to turn your attention toward yourself from time to time, because everyone is deserving of a little celebration. EVERYONE. Fighting for other people to experience celebration is wonderful, just don’t forget to fight for the same celebrations for yourself too.

Remember that we are most motivated by feeling good, content, and accomplished. Celebrating the moment allows us to feel those things, which will propel us to keep moving and growing in this life. And that in itself is worth celebrating. Party on...