I'm just getting proverbially smacked across the face with all sorts of delight these days, and it's all about re-framing negatives into positives.
No matter what, I find myself getting really crabby and downer-Debbie this time of year. Chalk it up to winter—I know I’m not the only one who thinks this time of year utterly sucks. It’s bone-crushingly cold, it’s terribly dark. Work for all accountants all of a sudden just takes a nosedive into year-end reporting or, God forbid, public busy season. Everyone’s a little bit fatter and a little bit hungover from the months of holiday partying and eating, or following super-stringent diet and gym routines to reverse that holiday bulge. Bottom line…winter can make me miserable.
I don’t like being miserable. My default setting tends toward the bright-and-sunny end of the spectrum, and being such a cranky downer makes me feel dissonant. With that in mind, I’ve made a conscious effort to notice, and appreciate, little things that make me happy.
Although I’ve been coming to and leaving work in the dark lately, during the day my window desk means I get to bask in sunshine and soak up all that life-affirming light. And views like these don’t hurt, either:
Sure, the cold saps every drop of moisture out of my skin, hair and lips, but that’s been a great excuse to spend a ton of girly evenings soaking in bath oils, exfoliating and doing masques, and slathering up in the best smelling lotion.
I may be totally cutting out or back on alcohol, carbs, sugar, and takeout, but the excessive healthiness of my diet lately makes treats like Cossetta's macarons or the dark chocolate Hershey Kiss I pack in my lunch every day feel so decadent, they're even more satisfying.
My boss-buddy-man may be in Colombia bonding with his new son and finalizing his adoption, leaving a void in my day-to-day coffee runs and hilarity, but that's opened up a handful of other cool opportunities to step into his shoes at work and prove yet again that I'm a capable, talented team player.
The gym may totally annoy me with its sweatiness and overcrowding and...well...exercise, but putting the every-weekday-right-after-work miles on the treadmill and elliptical has become built-in time to indulge in my new "Netflix on the iPad in the gym" obsession with no interruptions.
Sloppy winter roads may leave my car a dirty mess on the outside, but gas hovering around $1.99 a gallon continues to leave extra $$ in my wallet to splurge on a car wash way more often than I normally would this time of year.
The baby next door whose nursery shares a wall with my bedroom may have decided 5:15 am is a great time to get a daily lung workout in, but my new, improved, earlier wake-up time gives me 45 extra minutes to read in bed, have an extra cup of coffee, or give myself an at-home blowout.
HA! Suck it, winter blues! Negative Nellie's taken a hike and I'm going to keep my little-miss-sunshine attitude rocking until the actual sun decides to make a reappearance. Here's to forcing the little things to make every day a bit brighter.