Take yourself on a date.

Sometimes you need to take yourself on a date. You deserve to set up a day for yourself filled with all your favorite things in the same way you would for someone you were trying to woo or impress. Woo yourself. Impress yourself. 

I recently did this, and I called it a one woman retreat. It was a day for self care filled with many of my favorite things:

• Yoga sculpt class
• Brunch at a favorite restaurant
• Reading a favorite book
• A meditative walk in nature
• Listening to a podcast
• Journaling
• Coffee
• Taking photos
• Blooming desert plants

As I opened the book, Peace is Every Step by Thich Nhat Hanh, the most powerful thing I read was on the first page: “We are very good at preparing to live, but not very good at living. We know how to sacrifice ten years for a diploma, and we are willing to work very hard to get a job, a car, a house, and so on. But we have difficulty remembering that we are alive in the present moment, the only moment there is for us to be alive.”

Before having kids, I was really good at setting academic, career, and personal goals and accomplishing them, but I wasn’t as good at being alive in the present moment. My kids have taught me the beauty of just being. 

They have also helped me to realize that I need to take time away from them to be a healthy person. 

I want to be one of those people who are just effortlessly happy and positive all the time, but the truth is it takes time and effort for me. When I take time to slow down, it helps me appreciate what I have. 

My gift to myself was to take a day to just be, slow down, and practice gratitude.

If it’s been awhile since you took yourself on a date, I highly recommend it.