Celebrating Moments of Existence: Exercises in self-compassion

This morning as I was scrolling through my facebook feed – that now contains a lot of weddings and babies – I noticed how parents thoroughly enjoyed celebrating every single day, week, and month of their children’s existence. Something that I too truly enjoy. But that made me wonder -  at what point do they stop documenting the number of days their child has grown? And what point does society say, “oh get over it!”? And why? Why do we stop celebrating each other’s daily existence?

With health issues like depression and anxiety on the rise, we encounter people who question their existence and sometimes wish they weren’t alive. At what point did the people around them stop celebrating? And why? At what point did cultural norms ask them to set aside their child-like essence?

Do you follow yet?

Well, here’s the thing – we talk about soul and the child within, but little do we find ways to celebrate each other’s existence.  According to google (literally I typed in "number of days since DATE OF BIRTH") I have existed for 11,202 days to date. And that small fact made me realize how much there was to celebrate about myself and the people around me. So why don't we celebrate our lives the same way we've managed to celebrate the days, weeks, and months of children?

This February, I decided to launch what I like to call the #SelfCompassionRevolution that encourages anybody to find compassionate moments in their day when they can look at their situation and say, "I acknowledge you and you are wonderful". Compassionate moments don't need to be elaborate, but they certainly be found in little random facts like knowing how many days we have been breathing. 

I recognize that on some days it may be very difficult for some of us to have something to smile about or to get us excited. And for some that difficulty can go on for weeks and months, until ceasing to exist becomes the best option. Today, however, I invite you to take a moment to do something simple wherein you might be able to say, "oh hey, cool!"

Here are a few self-compassion activities that may help you nourish your soul today:

1. Create a book of YOU - document random days of existence and put a number on it. Ask google how many days you've been alive if you have to, then add a selfie to it. Social media has all these posts of kids with candles and cute decors, why not do it for yourself? Haha! You don't need to publish it, but put it somewhere that will make you giggle from time to time

2. Write letters to the future - self-compassion moments can also exist when we write letters to ourselves or to other people. You'll find that in moments of high emotion, writing a letter to the future is one way to help put more things into perspective. You can check out whensend.com or futureme.org to send letters to your future self or other. 

3. Angel Therapy - when I can't seem to decide on anything, I look for angel therapy cards, say a quick prayer for guidance, and pull out a card or two to listen to the messages the universe might be sending me. Check out angeltherapy.com by Doreen Virtue and check out the oracle card readings to help you sort out various situations.