treat myself better

I quit my job today. It was time to move on. I loved that company, but it was time. :o)

I took my first yoga class today and really enjoyed it. I felt so calm and joyful afterwards. It was wonderful!

I honestly think I’m about done with this one. Every day I try to do something that “feeds my soul.” I even made a list of things that feed my soul: beautiful stones, good smells, reading, having an orderly home, music, tea in lovely tea cups, flowers, the ocean, alone time, the library, traveling to exotic locales, Istanbul, beautiful photos, art museums, watching/feeding the birds, relaxing outdoors, and writing.

I try to do at least one soul feeding activity a day. It’s really quite wonderful, and what’s more it’s really making a difference in my depression.

I did a vision board this weekend which was centered on being nice to myself. Today, a friend asked me to sign up for a conference in Toronto, and I DID! I’m so excited to be going with her—no kids, no hubby, just a girls weekend. I think the conference will be valuable and I think getting away will be wonderful as well.

I have this lip gloss that’s been hanging around in my makeup drawer for, oh, over a year probably. It’s unopened, so it wasn’t spoiled. I bought the stuff on sale, scooped up a lot of it because it was only $5 for lip gloss that had formerly been $20. Unfortunately, it turned out that I hated the stuff, so it’s been languishing in my drawer, a reminder of the $20 I wasted on multiple tubes of nasty lip gloss.

Today I threw it out. Yeah, I know, $20 in the trash. Oh, well. Thank God it’s gone.

For the past 2.5 months I’ve been using these basket-type coffee filters that don’t fit my cone style coffee pot. Someone gave them to me, and when I ran out of the cone style ones I used these out of desperation. I hate them; I have kind of push them in and work them around to put the coffee grounds into it. It’s annoying.

Last week I bought some cone-shaped (unbleached) filters from Whole Foods, and I’ve anxiously been awaiting the day when I’m FINALLY DONE with the old basket filters. Last night, in the spirit of being nice to myself, I decided it wasn’t worth the trouble of waiting until the old ones were gone. I mean, why do I make myself suffer these kinds of things? Sure, they’re small. Probably insignificant to most people, but I notice them very much.

I just got rid of a bunch of things that were cluttering up my cabinets—bottles and bowls mostly. They’re in the donate box in the basement now. I also threw away things I “should” be saving like a squash I’m never going to cook and an opened bag of shredded coconut that’s gone hard.

I’ve also donated some shoes that I hate and really “should” return. But, it’s too much hassle for me to even THINK of returning them. So, they’ve been in my den for oh, about two months now, dragging me down. They’ll make someone else very happy, so that’s good.

It feels good to get rid of things that have been dragging me down.

I got a new coat. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough for now. And I’m happy with it, which is what matters.

I just unsubscribed from a bunch of emails that I “should” be reading but never get the time to do so. I feel guilty about not reading them, so I just got rid of them. That makes me feel better. Funny that little things like that cause me stress.

I am also no longer going to read magazines that don’t interest me, no matter how cheap it was to subscribe. Or if I simply receive said magazines because I belong to an organization (like Angie’s List or the Sierra Club) that automatically sends me a magazine. I will try to cancel the ones I can, but the others I will simply flip into the recycling bin.

I put on a lot of weight when I was pregnant, and my old coat doesn’t fit me. I know I’ll probably lose weight before next winter, so I don’t feel I should buy myself a coat that fits. Instead, I wear my old one, that doesn’t zipper up around my middle. sigh That’s just not right.

And another thing, I keep stuff in my refrigerator-I’m specifically thinking about condiments here-that I don’t like. But I don’t want to throw them away because they’re still good. That’s silly. They’re taking up space in my fridge. No one is eating them. And I’m just waiting for them to go bad. Ridiculous.