celebrate your victories!
09 Sep 2020a little over a year ago, i noticed i wasn’t celebrating my victories enough. i was also noticing that some of my clients were doing the same. now, as i send that writing to some current clients and coaching partners (people who consent to having me coach them, ht damon and sarah for that language), i realize i want to say a little more.
i believe celebration of victories is critical. celebration helps anchor in our bodyminds that we can win. when we achieve our goals, but don’t celebrate, all we remember is the hard work and often stress of the journey. i once heard a doula say that part of the reason people who give birth are willing to do it multiple times is that you get a BABY at the end. it’s fucking hard (natural, but hard) and the reward at the end is worth it. celebrations can be like that for us. and, given the work that people i work with do, the effort can be massive for somewhat opaque or seemingly miniscule outcomes. cranking up the dial on our celebration can help us remember that the hard work was really worth it. we want our bodies to remember the verbal affirmations, the dancing, the clapping, the cheers, not just the effort and emotional labor, etc. of the path.
the other thing i want to share here are my two primary celebration mechanisms: solo dance parties and telling someone.
i’ve been doing solo dance parties for a long time but it’s only in the last year or so that i’ve been doing the intentionally after some victory. whether it be nailing a piece of work or finishing a task i’ve been blocked on for a while, taking just 3-4 minutes with one of my favorite songs and moving my body to it has felt super great. and my body has really begun to internalize that doing hard things is worth it because of the impending reward of dancing!
the other mechanism of telling someone has been really great, too. i usually telling people who i have been in relationship with for a long time OR someone i have a close spiritual bond with. often i tell people who are in both of those categories for me. the longer i’ve been in relationship with someone for, the more likely it is they will be able to see exactly why the victory matters so much to me. because they’ve seen me grow and struggle and achieve things in the past, they tend to be intimately familiar with what blocks me and how overcoming the blocks matters.
ok, that’s all for now! thanks for listening. :)
words / writing / post-processing
444w / 14min / 5min