Generally speaking, self-indulgence is a pretty negative term. Definitions include the words excessive, selfish, greedy, decadent. I can see where being completely self-indulgent all the time would be truly negative.
Yesterday, I took a day for myself. A day where I did what I felt like doing (not much), ate what I wanted (too much), and generally put off everything I didn’t feel like doing.
Now, I have two kids. A husband. A house. A gecko. I can’t exactly pretend they don’t exist. In fact, being woken out of a dead sleep by a kid yelling that he has a tummy ache and having to immediately jump of bed is absolutely not covered in the definition of self-indulgence.
But I did the best I could.
I read this book…
And this one…
And this one…
I fed the people who live here meals out of the freezer (no, not frozen dinners, soup that I made and froze). I didn’t do laundry or clean or work on our taxes or work or run. In fact, I spent most of the day sitting. (Lest you think I totally ignored my responsibilities, Jones was not here and Shoo had a friend over to play. Shoo got meals and a bath and the gecko got fed. Remember back when in college/just after when a lazy, self-indulgent day truly meant doing nothing???)
And it was exactly what I needed. I was feeling mentally (probably from the lack of sun last week) and physically (hello, 36.7 miles already this week) run down and needed to just take a break.
And it worked. Today, I can’t wait to run 10 miles, I’ve already made Shoo pancakes for breakfast, and I’m about to tackle Mount Laundry. In the end, I think I’ll actually accomplish more this weekend by having taken a day to do nothing.
Did you do anything just for yourself yet this weekend?
Good for you! We all need days like this, that’s for sure:)
Good for you!!! I love Nora Roberts and reading in general. I’m sort-of doing the day of indulgence today (trying to kick what I hope if just a cold).
Hope your 10 mile run today was great!!
Sounds like heaven.
I am impressed you read 3 books.
I am really working on this too. Always go-go-go between a full time job, starting a second, marathon training, and blogging. I am trying to learn how to force myself to relax and it has been pretty great so far.
Sounds great! It’s so good to recharge and start the new week fresh! I totally took the whole weekend to myself and spent it at a women’s retreat. Complete with hot tub and steam shower. It was exactly what I needed!