How can I treat myself versus how can I celebrate myself

Jan Normanton • February 27, 2025

There is a vast difference in meaning between the two statements, one predicating a helpful state, the other an unhelpful one

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If you are stressed, consider somatic massage or somatic coaching and know that your body has a whole set of inbuilt ways to help you manage your inner states.

The next time you find yourself asking the question “how can I treat myself”, reframe this and ask the question instead “how can I celebrate myself”.


There’s a vast difference in the energies of these two statements. How can I treat myself can come from a victim mentality, where we might have worked so hard, gone the extra mile, done too much in an overgiving way, in a people pleasing way, in a way that says we’re not enough, so I have to overgive and overdo and show up more, because showing up as myself isn’t enough.


In this way we can exhaust ourselves, run rings around ourselves and the question at the end of a long week of that for instance, working all week really hard, going the extra mile, can leave us exhausted, depleted, discombobulated and shattered and not knowing ourselves because we’ve pushed ourselves out of our normal area of energy levels, time levels, focus levels.


The difference between that and working at our own pace, connecting with our bodies, being in tune with ourselves and working in alignment with our mind, body, spirit is that we come from a place of abundance, from feeling enough, from feeling that showing up is great and that we’re doing everything we are doing in alignment with who we are, our energy levels, our time capacities and our focus capacities.


So the difference here is vast. Coming from a place of abundance where we say how can I celebrate myself this week and look back and reflect upon all we’ve achieved for instance and celebrate ourselves, being in connection with ourselves and attuned to ourselves and meeting our needs along the way.


Versus how can I treat myself because I’ve flogged the proverbial dead horse, I’ve worked myself to the bone and I’m feeling now a distinctive lack because I was already coming from an area of lack, place of lack and now I need to treat myself – these are very different.

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