Divine Frivolousness


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As I mentioned a few weeks ago, I broke my wrist. For those of you who’ve had similar issues or other mobility or disability issues, you know how difficult it is to move about the world feeling impaired in some way (and I realize there are way worse things than a broken wrist).  The thing I found is that pain and discomfort are far easier to deal with than the little things like brushing your teeth or putting on a bra.

About two weeks after the injury, I was noticing my uneven manicure more and more.  My left hand, confined to a cast, retained almost a new manicure look, while my right hand, doing the job of two, had almost no nail polish left and altogether scraggly look.

Best. Choices. Ever. My newly manicured hand and the poof with a stick.

I realize that there are bigger things to worry about than ragged looking nails.  Truthfully, I usually don’t think about it at all. But something broke in me when I woke up on Thursday morning. I just felt really scuzzy. Showering with one hand in a cast and covered with plastic sort of condom for a few weeks with beat up nails and gray hair growing in and just an all-around sense of the yuckiness had really gotten to me.  Of course, I had a gazillion things to do that day too.  I had to finish writing a teleclass that I would deliver at the end of the day, I had a number of clients on my schedule, and approximately a bajillion e-mails to send out.

I’ve always been a work first/ party later sort of person.  If you had asked me years ago what a person in my position should’ve done, I would’ve said, “Get to work.”  Getting to work is the responsible answer. Getting to work right away might’ve meant getting some more e-mails done or even doing a better job editing that teleclass.

I should have woken up, eaten something and gotten right to work.  Instead, I got dressed as best as I could and went straight to the nail salon. 

As soon as I walked in, it felt like the best decision I’d ever made in my life.  I sunk into a pedicure chair, turned on the massager, and watched whatever cooking show was on the TV there.  The woman who did my manicure was wonderful at working around the cast.  On my way home, I stopped in a drugstore and bought a poof with the stick attached so that I could exfoliate a bit and get to parts of my body that I wasn’t reaching so well one-handed.

The right thing to do would have been to go right to work, but it wouldn’t have been right for me. I felt so good after that mani-pedi and that walk that I approached my work with renewed vigor. When I got back to my home office I answered e-mails, made the calls I need to make, and even started editing that teleclass. I showed up for my work wholly and completely ready and happy and I’m pretty sure that I did a better job for my clients that day because I was feeling good and take care of.

Basically a little self-care (even if it seems frivolous) can go a long way. It’s important to remember that self-care can be a key to not only feeling good but feeling productive, happy, and essentially, nourished.

This concept is something that I touched on in my teleclass last week, The Goddess Path to Healing from Food and Body Image Issues. Essentially, the things that we think of is frivolous in our society, like taking time for self-care, spending a little extra time on our adornment, putting pleasure and happiness and contentment above work, these are the things that really make us happy because they connect us to the goddess and the divine feminine.  Truthfully, I try to live my life from this place as much as possible every day and it hasn’t led to the things that I had initially feared it would lead to, like missing appointments with clients or ignoring my business because I’m out finding my bliss. On the contrary, I find that the more I focus on the things I used to think of as frivolous, the happier and more focused I am and the more able to create the life I really want. These are the tools I’m so excited to be teaching in my upcoming group program The Big Beautiful Goddess Academy.

If you’re looking to increase her self-care, make a list of some of the activities that you think of as frivolous but that you enjoy. Make a commitment to do at least one of these things each week, or go even bigger and make a commitment to do one of those things each day. See how it affects your overall happiness.

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Golda is a certified holistic health counselor and founder of Body Love Wellness, a program designed for plus-sized women who are fed up with dieting and want support to stop obsessing about food and weight. To learn more about Golda and her work, click here.

5 thoughts on “Divine Frivolousness

  1. Good for you!

    For years, I’ve scheduled a monthly pedicure – look forward to it for days as a way to decompress & totally relax. When I leave the salon, I feel as though I could take on the world…AND wear cute sandals. Those supposedly “little things” we do for ourselves end up having a big effect on how we feel & function, and we all ought to remember that.

  2. I’m so with you. I’ve always been notorious for putting everything ahead of self-care. A friend once told me I was like a pitcher of water that I kept pouring out of, but never stopped to fill. At a certain point, it didn’t matter how much I tried to pour more water out — it just wasn’t there.

    I’m not a mani-pedi girl, but I ditched household tasks this weekend to go for a long bike ride. Aaaaaaah! SO good! And oddly, I got more stuff done around the house afterward than I have in a long time.

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