by Shannon Everest, Brunswick Heads, Australia, Beautiful woman, Mother and extraordinaire in many fields….
When I was growing up, the one day in the year that I was celebrated in my family was on my birthday. That day was all about me and I felt special. I received gifts, had parties, there was a cake made especially for me – the type I liked. People even sang directly to me and about me! Now that was something I didn’t get often. This was not something I desperately craved but when I got it, it was a strong feeling of ‘yeah, this feels right, this is how it always should be. This feels natural!’ When others celebrated me, I felt confirmed.
And I loved other people’s birthdays too: it felt right to celebrate my family and friends on their birthdays. I didn’t have a sense of jealousy at this time about celebrating others or felt concerned that I wasn’t getting gifts or attention focussed on me. It felt so amazing seeing someone light up on their birthday because that day was all about them. So to celebrate my loved ones on their birthdays was a confirmation for me of what felt natural.
I just loved birthdays! And what I loved about them, whether it was mine or someone else’s, was that this was the most normal, natural thing – to be in celebration of ourselves, and each other. It was so normal to me, so what were all the other days I was living?
If there is one day, the world over, that we can give ourselves permission to celebrate ourselves – it is on our birthdays. But for anyone who takes this opportunity to celebrate themselves, it’s quite a depressing thing the next day to not have that again. I have noticed sometimes, when I speak with people about their birthday, that it can be depressing, an anticlimax, like it didn’t happen the way they wanted it to. What I have noticed is that we have often already learnt that in the past – it hurts to go from a day of amazingness to the next day of ‘not that’. So better to play it safe and not go there in the first place.
But it just doesn’t make sense! What I have also realised through having children and taking time consistently, daily, momentarily to celebrate them, is that the natural thing for them will be to grow up and celebrate themselves. Because through making it normal and natural and through making it something that doesn’t happen just on their birthdays, they get to feel they are worth celebrating just for being them. When you have experienced what that is like as a child, you don’t grow up wanting it or expecting it to come from outside. You grow up and it feels normal to be this way with yourself because the natural feeling was already confirmed in you. It then is a natural way of being with others, reminding them how amazing they are.
This is HUGE. It means that we can claim any day, every day, anytime to start celebrating ourselves. We don’t need to wait until our birthday, because it just doesn’t make sense to have 1 day of joy and 364 other days of ‘not joy’.
The problem is that when we save the celebration of ourselves for just one day in the year, it’s usually got to be a pretty big event to make up for all of those aforementioned 364 days: we then condition ourselves to expect a big party, lots of people around, stimulation, yummy food, big outings and therefore lose the essence of the celebration of ourselves…. we miss what is at the very heart of celebrating. We miss celebrating all of the simple things, all the beautiful things we see and feel and connect to with others – the magical moments that happen with our children or out on a walk in nature, or even when we are shopping and meet eyes with someone.
When I was a child, the truth was I wanted to celebrate myself and others every single day. It wasn’t until I attended a presentation by Universal Medicine and was asked the question: “Do I celebrate myself as a woman when I have a bath?” that I began to wake up to life again. My answer was no, that part of me that naturally felt that way had gone to sleep. I had grown up and become a partner, a mother of two children, and was not looking after myself properly, let alone celebrating myself. I had given up on that being normal and natural because the world around me reflected that it wasn’t normal, even though I could and can feel that in the heart of every person is that natural feeling to want to celebrate who we are and to celebrate each other, but life gets in the way.
So, I had stopped celebrating me and would only do that on my birthday. I started looking back at everything I felt as a child and how I had since then let so much come in the way of what I naturally felt. I started celebrating me. The simple truths expressed by Universal Medicine have re-kindled the natural childhood feelings of joy that I am now bringing into my life – in a celebration.
The Truth about Universal Medicine 
It’s like we are given permission on that one day to let someone know how much we care for them and how much they mean to us… yet, where has that permission come from, where has that belief come from? It’s great when we question the status quo and why we actually do what we do. Years and lifetimes of doing something in a particular way can be exposed and the true way felt in an instant.
How awesome would it be to appreciate and celebrate each other and ourselves every day and not just wait for one day of the year? This in itself would be a game changer of how we treat each other and approach life.
Life is to be a constant celebration of who we truly are, for it is only then that we understand that every movement reflects back to another that which lives equally within themselves.
Thank you Shannon, this is very powerful to read. I recently had a birthday and felt the weight I had put on that day in the past to be so very much, and it makes sense that we naturally know the feeling to be celebrated and confirmed, so when it’s not there 364 days then on that one special day we want it to be over the top! I also appreciated how you explained that we can move into a too outward focus on celebrating instead of on who we are on the inside.
When we truly celebrate ourselves there is no yearning, neediness or seeking attention or recognition from others… we give what we crave on the outside to ourselves.
If we appreciate ourselves in every moment .. or as many moments as we can! it kind of makes that ‘whole special day’ think pretty insignificant .. in a good way. However, I still love Celebrating people on their birthdays ✨
When we embrace the true nature of who we are, there is no other way than to live in constant appreciation and confirmation of what is within equally in us and that deserves to be celebrated and moved in a way that inspires others to live the same way.
It is so important that we learn to develop an appreciation for ourselves, for our qualities and not just what we do is the very foundation that helps us realise that in the uniqueness of how those qualities are expressed, we are all worth celebrating.
Shannon thank you for the beautiful reminder of how important it is to celebrate ourselves and others everyday.
Celebrating each other should be our natural way of being for it is only then that we get to appreciate our differences and honour how amazing we are for just being us, life would be so much grander if we all lived this way!
Thank you for the reminder that we can celebrate ourselves. When I pause and take a breath it’s as if the inspiration is there ready and waiting, there is much to celebrate.
If we need birthdays to make life worthwhile then, what are we lacking in our everyday? Birthdays are more joy-full when they are not loaded with the need from our lack to make up for our dullness in life.
I know what you mean Joshua, from a young age I felt the imposition from adults around me to ‘fill’ them up, especially on birthdays and Christmas and I’m only just in the last few years seeing the poison of entertaining another’s emptiness.
Our birthday comes around once a year but we are there every day for us to celebrate being who we are.
this is such important blog – as we set ourselves up for less when we make it just about one day, one celebration or a few a year.. Simply saying ‘well, I am great or joyful but just for a day or two. Hence, what you bring with this blog is the awareness of a broader approach we can and must take for ourselves – to see, feel and claim that celebration in you no matter what – birthday or not.
If we all celebrated each other more and the qualities each person brings our relationships would naturally deepen and become more loving.
Sure, celebrate a birthday as a marker, but celebrate every moment as an opportunity.
Birthdays remind us that we have another number or numbers to really embrace and get to live in full. Having a greater understanding of numbers let’s us appreciate the cycle we are embarking upon as every year we travel around the sun revolving and evolving.
“The one day in the year that I was celebrated in my family was on my birthday” – Our approach to birthdays really illuminates the fact that we do not celebrate each other enough. Surely the amazingness of a child (or anyone) should be celebrated every single day.
Thank you Shannon, I loved your blog about celebrating ourselves, celebrate myself every day, wow, that would be a game changer for me, I could take myself out on a date, enjoy being with me, now having found me after a lifetime of hiding, that is something to celebrate.
Children are in natural celebration of themselves everyday – but we teach/condition the idea of 1 special day being birthdays to them. I’ve seen this happen where the child wasn’t understanding the gifts and fuss that was happening around them and ended up having a big tantrum and reacting to the whole thing… quite a scene to observe!
I could relate to feeling flat after my birthday each year because those around me would treat me differently, more loving or caring, for just one day and that was it. Next day like clockwork it would be back to arguing. Now I love celebrating any one in my life any day. Such a huge change.
So true, when I was growing up there would be a few days in a year (birthdays and christmas) where no matter what there would be no arguments and on those days everyone would be super nice and in a really great mood. I remember a) being confused by the fakeness of the situation, and b) wishing the same amount of effort was put in everyday.
I hear you Meg, it is very confusing and you know the whole time that it is going to change back to how it usually is very soon.
Yep it’s almost like you’re walking on egg-shells waiting for one wrong step to break one and for all everything to go back to normal. There’s a lot of tension involved in faking it…
It strikes me days like birthdays and Christmas Day should be to simply confirm the love we already have for ourselves and our loved ones.
I have always loved Birthdays and still do, I have slowly over the years extending them to be more like birth months but what you are sharing in this blog is the possibility that we can have the celebration that comes with a Birthday everyday. On one level I understand this concept but the problem is that it still just a concept. Maybe I am expecting too much but on my Birthday I do whatever I want, I am free, I buy what I want and I feel like I am just more open to relaxing and having fun but on a normal day, I have lots of things I have to do and sometimes that fact alone brings with it overwhelm. I know that I am more celebratory and generally enjoy life more since Universal medicine but I have certainly not got to the point that I feel like I can celebrate like its my Birthday everyday but I am certainly open to the possibility.
Thank you Sandra – a profound sharing on the truth of life and the way we have lived with ourselves. It is simply true that we have not taken care of ourselves to the depth we know we are worth. Yet we have lived in this opposite way that we need to care and take on burdens etc, hence it is so important to read back and see what things you have let come in your way of that inner truth – you knowing who you are and All you deserve.
A great reminder to celebrate me not only all today but right now. This gives me purpose and focus.
I notice that when I haven’t been appreciating myself I am not able to really appreciate another and then issues become the focus. However, when I do appreciate myself this then flows to others – you can’t not appreciate them.
I wonder if celebration and appreciation go hand in hand, when we lose our appreciation for all the small beautiful moments in life and our appreciation for who we are and the bigger picture, we tend to stop celebrating everything that is amazing in our lives.
On reading this blog has given me permission to celebrate myself in so many more ways than I do now… why put a limitation on how, where and why we celebrate ourselves or others…it can be as simple as celebrating myself when I walk in my full presence for all to see – shinning my light and the truth of who we all truly are.
We seem to have a knack of doing things just on special occasions, like a birthday or Mother’s Day or Christmas. No wonder it is such a letdown – why not celebrate us and each other every day as a natural expression of our love and appreciation?
Developing an appreciation for ourselves, for our qualities and not just what we do is the very foundation that helps us realise that in the uniqueness of how those qualities are expressed, we are all worth celebrating.
We need to love and appreciate ourselves every day! Not just on our Birthdays. If only we had this information and the inclination to enjoy all that we do when we were very young, how different the world would be.
Celebrating oneself every day inevitably brings up the question of self-worth and how much we love and cherish ourselves – ‘celebrating myself’ definitely is now a new marker for me to check the way I am living and being with myself.
Celebrating ourselves and each other as the normal way of living every day, wow – that´s a game changer setting a new standard in a world that is used to know itself by suffering, insufficiency, striving to better and be liked.
It was interesting, my experience of birthdays was something very different. I used to do the opposite and dismiss them and just want the day not to happen. As a kid it was often a day where there would be a big fight between my mum and I and so after that I just despised birthdays and would often isolate myself on those days. Even though I went to the other extreme of behaviour- it is the same as what you describe- not living in a way that I celebrated and appreciated myself.
It actually makes no sense to celebrate someone for only one day a year, because what happens to all the other days – do we make a special effort to dislike them?
Were we to celebrate and confirm each other constantly in every moment, the depth of connection and intimacy that would result would turn our world on its head.
I asked my students if any of them were doing anything for Valentine’s day. One boy said he was taking himself out on a date, buying himself a present and taking himself to the movies. Love it. It made us all laugh, but it was a lovely message that we can celebrate ourselves any day.
Birthdays can be used – like every date – as a marker. We can see how we did live the last year and what we learned. By claiming what we have lived and so expressed the last year, we can build on this and expand. We can use those markers for evolving.
This blog comes right in time for me – as it is my birthday today. 🙂
And I joyful realized today that I am not excited what will come, not in expectations about how I will be celebrated by others, not disappointed about getting no birthday cards … and so on. In the past I was looking forward to that day, as it was a reflection of being special – but also with a bit of anxiety that it will not become as I wish. I had a few tears in the years where I felt not as celebrated as deserved… But I changed my way of living and now I feel in charge to celebrate myself every day. To see and accept my divinity. To look in the mirror and see Gods amount in me. To feel my preciousness and express it. My self-worth is not a question of ‘being there or not there’ – I am always worth, the question is, do I live it? Every day.
Truly celebrating ourselves and each other, consistently appreciating what is there to be appreciated is powerful stuff, it gives us a true foundation from which to live and grow, helping us to bring out more of who we really are and not get worn down by or withdraw from life.
I know that I put more effort into that one day where I have my birthday but maybe I could experiment and see what happens if I make little celebrations everyday for myself. I would bet that my appreciation for me will go up.
I have always loved Birthdays as it feels like the permission is given to celebrate like you mention in this article. What has revealed itself to me is why I feel I need permission at all? Why do I wait so long to feel free to go to town, what belief is holding me that everyday cannot be so celebrated?
Every day a birthday, I like that. We’re worth celebrating, every day.
‘We miss celebrating all of the simple things, all the beautiful things we see and feel and connect to with others ‘ Very true Shannon, learning to value and appreciate myself has been key to expressing this love in all my relationships and celebrating the qualities each of us brings.
Over the past year now I’ve been (without perfection) working on appreciating something about myself every single day and quiet frankly I know there’s more but even just in these small steps alone it makes that one day that is all about you even more confirming. By appreciating ourselves we aren’t pinning our hopes and expectations on others to bring all the celebration, we bring the party and others can join in. And even when another appreciates you not on your birthday that feeling of confirmation of my own celebration is still with me rather than the void that can be felt when another appreciates us and we haven’t been appreciating.
I have come to know how important it is to celebrate the little things in our lives as they are the foundational blocks for the way we live our lives. We have no problems celebrating the big production numbers; a new job, the birth of a child, a birthday etc, but the little things, like taking the time to brush our hair gently, sitting down to eat instead of standing at the bench, taking a moment to appreciate how we are walking, tend to be overlooked as just ordinary parts of our day, when in fact they are just as important and definitely worth celebrating.
Lovely to read this again. Although I have come to feel that everyday is a celebration it impulses me to feel to choose to do some act each day to celebrate myself as part of my self-appreciation programme.
I never gave it much thought why I didn’t enjoy my birthday in the past, but this article certainly gives reasons why.
This made me really stop as I don’t really ‘do’ my birthdays any more. I have been aware of the craziness of making one day a year special and putting an effort into making it so, but am I celebrating myself everyday? That would be a bit of an overstatement.
The aspect I noticed of birthdays which often becomes the main focus is the presents. I always looked forward to the presents so much that they were the highlight of the day, but how evil is this when true celebration and appreciation of us is far far greater.
‘It was so normal to me, so what were all the other days I was living?’ great question for reflection Shannon. The essence of who we are is there all of the time and it can be felt on our birthday so why not bring it everyday, why hold back? I am wondering if it is because we feel there is permission to shine on our birthdays, and so we feel safer then to shine. Could be very exposing to honestly check-in and truthfully look at what is going on and to choose to live what is there everyday.
Gorgeous Shannon, and the beautiful thing is the more we celebrate ourselves and others the more joyful life becomes..
This is evolutionary parenting – to celebrate them in full every day – so no day is more special than another. Why wait a year to tell someone how much we love them. What a gorgeous way to confirm someone.
I love the fact that we do not have to celebrate ourselves on just one day. Every day is an opportunity to see the absolute glory that we are and an opportunity to love ourselves more every day. In the past, I would have thought that this was a fanciful idea but these days in my life is it just normal.
For every high there is a low. True love has no such extremes but is ever consistent in its emanation, and not a condition of being that is dependent on external outcomes.
To celebrate me and life is something I sometimes can feel and is a great way to live life in, but my investment in the physicality and business of life, to keep it all running and to stay seemingly in control of it, takes me away form that natural way of living where each moment is a celebration of life, or the grandness it actually is.
Thank you Shannon. You have me pondering on the many ways I could begin to celebrate myself and it is clear that it needs to start right now. So here I am celebrating the way I type on my colourful laptop in my gorgeous pink PJs – it’s enough to make me put a candle in my brekkie.
Leonne I love what you have written here, in fact I burst out laughing at the picture of your candle in your brekkie”, now that’s what I call celebrating. Now to come up with a little celebration of my own, for as you say there is no time like the present – thank you for the reminder that I am worth celebrating in every moment.
It was my birthday recently and I remember reading your blog a year or so ago. It really supported me to let go of the expectations, ideals and beliefs around birthdays, especially mine. I am embracing that every day and every moment is an opportunity to celebrate who I am, I don’t need to save it up for one day of each year but share this celebration with myself and everyone around me every day of the year. It is very beautiful to feel and appreciate how far I have come in letting go of these illusions surrounding birthday celebrations.
If we appreciated others in full and did not hold back our appreciation of ourselves, the whole need for birthdays that we currently have would simply not exist. Appreciating and celebrating ourselves makes us feel full again – of ourselves!
So awesome Shannon! I love this blog post! It makes such perfect sense that we ought to be celebrating ourselves from the moment we realise we’re worth it!
Busted…’… it hurts to go from a day of amazingness to the next day of ‘not that’. So better to play it safe and not go there in the first place.’ This is exactly what I have always done. I’m learning to undo this behavioral pattern…because why the hell would I not want to celebrate me on days either side of the actual day? Nothing wrong with that right?
Shannon, you beautifully celebrate the lost art of celebration, and how it’s not just for one day but all days. And it’s simple, a celebration of us each and every day, and to make that normal because in truth it is. We do not need to wait for a special occasion to celebrate.
I love the concept of making children feel they are worth celebrating everyday so they grow up with a sense of worth that does not require being filled from the outside. This should absolutely be normal so that a birthday is just a confirmation of what they already know and feel within.
I loved reading this blog again Shannon and felt how I am much more connected with myself and can celebrate me every day. I can still feel the remnants of seeking more attention on my birthday so this is a great support in realising that! We are universal – the less I make my life about me the more of the ALL I am learning to feel.
Reading this felt very on topic as it is my birthday coming up in a week and I could feel the usual pangs of ‘gosh what am i going to do?’ do I celebrate it or not? where should I go? even feeling a little bit of an obligation to ‘do something’. I love what you have shared here in this blog, that it is about me celebrating who I am each and every day, not just on the one day. That is my gift to myself, not to feel that there needs to be something grand happening on my actual birthday, but to be me, allow what I feel to unfold, just unfold, no pressure.
As a child I dreaded birthdays as it brought up a lot for my mother. She didn’t feel good about herself so therefore couldn’t celebrate me. My birthday was often the day where she would attempt to do the right thing but couldn’t hold it and would often end up abusing me. I always dreaded my birthdays and the weeks leading up to it where I would be asked what I wanted to do on my birthday. As a teenager I learnt to run away for my birthday with a few close friends and not answer any calls from family. I can feel I still hold some of this about my birthday and still find it a difficult to really celebrate myself.
Celebrating who we are is so important however it doesn’t need to be an external venture. It can simply be deeply connecting to and knowing our grandness.
It is great you bring this up, so many times we forget to celebrate our self, and think it is selfish to love and celebrate ourselves… It is far from that as when we are naturally celebrating our self, we see the beauty and grace in others too, everyone is worth celebrating in every moment.
“I started celebrating me. The simple truths expressed by Universal Medicine have re-kindled the natural childhood feelings of joy that I am now bringing into my life – in a celebration.” This is so joy-full. Celebrating ourselves every day – not just on one day a year. Beautiful.
“When you have experienced what that is like as a child, you don’t grow up wanting it or expecting it to come from outside. You grow up and it feels normal to be this way with yourself because the natural feeling was already confirmed in you. It then is a natural way of being with others, reminding them how amazing they are.’ You’re right Shannon, this is HUGE. The beautiful thing is, even if we haven’t felt that confirmation as children, we can start to grow it for ourselves in our moment by moment choices. Today is my 47th birthday and yes, I do feel a difference today which is a great marker for me as it exposes that I do not celebrate myself to this level every day, however, what I also feel is a growing steady, powerful appreciation of myself that is there most days now, which is building into joy as I love myself more each day.
“I have noticed sometimes, when I speak with people about their birthday, that it can be depressing, an anticlimax, like it didn’t happen the way they wanted it to. What I have noticed is that we have often already learnt that in the past – it hurts to go from a day of amazingness to the next day of ‘not that’. So better to play it safe and not go there in the first place.” Or alternatively it was so amazing that the next day we come crashing down because we can’t sustain that feeling as it has no foundation in our bodies and everyday living way. Steadily and consistently choosing to celebrate ourselves in even the tiniest of way begins to lay the foundations for us to stand on so that every day can start from this foundation and build more joy. It’s a practice that requires commitment – just like learning to build a foundation of bricks and mortar, but the more we practice the more masterful we become at it, so then the celebration of ourselves does indeed become the natural way we know deep within us is who we are.
Your comment has me remembering past birthdays where I celebrated with a big shebang that included large amounts of food, alcohol and loud music. On these occasions I would make it all about that one day/night and wake up to a huge mess with a dreadful hangover. This blog beautifully exposes this approach and allows me to appreciate the way I have chosen to celebrate myself on my birthdays and unbirthdays over the past few years.
Because through making it normal and natural and through making it something that doesn’t happen just on their birthdays, they get to feel they are worth celebrating just for being them. When you have experienced what that is like as a child, you don’t grow up wanting it or expecting it to come from outside.
What a gift that is for children, being celebrated for the beautiful beings they are rather than what they do so that they know their worth.
We have taken a big and glorious way of living which we naturally have as children to celebrate and appreciate and shrunken it into a small box saying that the day to celebrate and be celebrated is only on our birthday
I love birthdays too! Not just my own birthday but everyone’s birthday. The idea of celebrating everyone everyday feels a bit overwhelming at first but I have seen that when I express appreciation for myself I cannot but help express appreciation for others.
This blog is subtitle as being written “…by Shannon Everest, Brunswick Heads, Australia, Beautiful woman, Mother and extraordinaire in many fields….” This is just so super cool. That level of appreciation and claimed gorgeousness. I love it. Even before you start reading, you can feel how special this lady is.
Shannon I love what you share here about celebrating your children every day for who they are so that they continue to grow up with a sense of celebration being a daily normality rather than 1 day a year. We do not appreciate that celebrating each other is a beautiful way to confirm that we are naturally this. So to hea you raising your kids this way is very inspiring indeed 🙂
Celebrating and honouring ourselves in every moment feels such a common sense and wise thing to do; challenging as it may be at times. It has never felt “right” for me to have big birthday celebrations, although I sometimes feel this may have been a hiding strategy!! Thank you Shannon for highlighting the fact that we can re-kindling the natural joy, playfulness and love to celebrate each and every one of us in every moment.
Just feeling how that word ‘permission’ is so important here. On our birthday, our friends and family all focus on us which gives us permission to celebrate ourselves, but what if the permission is something we bring for ourselves – no need for another to confirm to us we are worth celebrating – we know it and then to do it is a natural way of life.
I am going to experiment with celebrating myself every day as if it’s my birthday. It is crazy that we reserve this for one day of the year, and even though I’ve been aware of this for quite some time, I can still feel I do not give myself permission to celebrate me in every moment.
There is a whole mine of absolute gold waiting for us if we commit to this kind of daily appreciation. I am literally just scraping at the surface but am already amazed at what I’m discovering.
Thanks for your comment Otto – it’s reminded me of what I was feeling and inspired me to acton it, not let it fade into the graveyard of good ideas never taken any further.
To action an impulse is such a great tonic for the body. “Yup, I’m listening, I hear you loud and clear, I trust you, I will follow you..let’s go..what else you got…”
Yes Arianne – I am all for celebrating me and every other beautiful ‘being’ everyday.
A birth day is very special. There may be many, millions even, who were also born on the same date but only you were born at that moment, in that place to those parents with the stars in that precise alignment. So each year it is an opportunity to celebrate and reflect and feel who you are and all you bring to the world.
This really rings true for me in my life..”it hurts to go from a day of amazingness to a day of ‘not that’. So better to play it safe and not go yhere in the first place. How many lifetimes have we chosen this. Playing small and safe. Does it serve us or humanity? Time to change the momentum and choose us again.
It seems to me that if we are brought up to believe that we can only celebrate ourselves one day a year and the rest of the time practically ignore ourselves, then lack of appreciation for ourselves will be rife. Could this be why so many want to ignore their birthdays because they are uncomfortable with the attention or do not feel like they deserve it. Does that one day highlight the lack of appreciation and celebration in our daily lives?
I am starting to feel the benefits of self appreciation and how this then goes out to others naturally, so it seems that if we do not appreciate ourselves can we truly celebrate ourselves.
Otto this is a super important point, that while we may have got celebrations very wrong at the moment, through placing more emphasis on special days to cover up what’s really going on every other day of the year, celebration is still an enormously important part of life. After all, there’s HEAPS to celebrate… in ourselves, in each other and then just the magic that is simply there every day we wake up.
Shannon I loved how you celebrated your children on a daily basis allowing them to grow up knowing that being celebrated didn’t happen only on one day of the year. And how we can build celebrating and appreciating ourselves into our everyday way of living.
I agree Shannon, to celebrate and deeply appreciate ourselves everyday is key to living a life with more joy and love.
Melinda I agree! I used to do this with EVERYTHING! Buy something really beautiful, like a dress or a candle and simply not use it!! The trouble is if you save something for a special occasion it gets old and you grow out of it and it no longer serves you, because it was there for you to support you to grow at that moment. If I buy something now that celebrates who I am I no longer hide it away for that special day in the distant future, I use it to celebrate who I am now.
I grew up thinking celebrating only happened on certain days of the year too. But learning now there can be many small moments in the day of celebrating myself and the people I dearly love around me, I have found is a much more beautiful and fulfilling way to live.
Celebrate and appreciate, There is just so much to celebrate in our everyday so when it does come round to our birth day – we just celebrate some more.
Totally feel the joy in what you have shared here Felix. It is such a gorgeous magical feeling of celebration when you are with you.
I love this. How amazing to make every day a celebration of being our wondrous selves! There doesn’t need to be balloons and a cake, but just a constant loving appreciation of the love we are and beauty that goes with it.
We are brought up under the notion that the birthday is the day for us to be celebrated while every other day is not a day of that same celebration. How can we live like this and really enjoy life in full without any need for stimulation or excitement from the outside world when we are at the mercy of never being celebrated for who we are naturally outside of ‘our special day’. Is this not teaching us that we need a special day, a condition to be there before we can be celebrated instead of just be celebrated for who we already are?
It’s a strong point Joshua. And it has crept in to every part of our lives. Kids are ace at breaking this consciousness. They’ll hold a ‘celebration’ at anytime and for any reason.
Wow, what does that say about society when we as adults no longer do the same thing?
We adults do something very different. What we adults do instead is live a life so devoid of joy, celebration, self-love and equality, that we then have to have mega celebrations (parties, holidays etc..) to try to justify and rub out the pain of the lives we are leading.
How beautiful to celebrate ourselves everyday, why weren’t we all taught to do that? The obvious answer is that our parents weren’t celebrated everyday either! I seems like the most natural thing to love ourselves and those around us by acknowledging that love everyday. What a difference it would make in the way we all value and see each other!
I love the fact that Universal Medicine has brought it back to celebrating ourselves every day. If everyone did this I am sure this world crime rate along with illness and disease rates would drop!
This is a great blog Shannon – I remember being measured how tall I was growing up and how much hoop la there would be if i’d grown a centimetre and the appreciation I felt then for my amazing body to grow and not even it disturb me doing so 🙂 I really need to get back to that level of appreciation seems it stopped once I stopped growing taller!!
It makes sense that if we celebrated each other daily we would know that feeling and have no need to crave it or want to feel special. I recently had a birthday and did not feel the need to advertise it at work, but all day I felt as though I had everything I already needed, and I enjoyed the fact that it felt special without all the extra attention.
I love what you have shared Melinda, it does feel wonderful to celebrate everyone and everything, but most importantly to celebrate oneself. I have the same feeling, when I am connected to me, appreciating myself, celebrating what i bring, it does elevate me from the murky thoughts that do come in. It is important to clock those thoughts, know they are not us and come back the the loving and appreciating ones.
Celebrating and having to be happy on your birthday like it’s some kind of rule, instead of feeling joyful most of the time just doesn’t make sense. Life can be a celebration we can choose without any fuss, just simply by being true and feeling the oneness with the all, is to me, worth celebrating everyday.
The idea of appreciating ourselves is such a simple concept that makes a lot of sense. We humans are crazy for complicating things and allowing ourselves to get caught up in the myriad of messages that commonly create a sense of ourselves as ‘not good enough’ etc, when in fact the opposite is true.
Every moment needs to be appreciated and celebrated when it is something that is coming naturally from within us. It should not just be one day, but a natural way of life with each other and ourselves.
I second this, Melinda. Birthdays are special but are not exclusively about celebrating who we are -that needs to happen daily, hourly…..
I feel that to appreciate, to reflect and to confirm are great ways to celebrate birthdays and to share this with others on the day. And the occasional present is great too!
As our kids have gotten older the drive to celebrate birthdays slowly was disappearing and I started to question the process of agonising what I might buy for inlaws. What I am honouring and celebrating? It did seem appropriate to mark the passing of time, but not in the superficial way it had become people providing a list a what they might like for there birthday, distributing this amongst family members and an evening meal. At a recent Universal Medicine numerology workshop the incredible relationship between cycles and numbers was presented and from this I have gained a much deeper understanding of there is to mark and appreciate and there is something in that for the whole family.
There’s so much pressure placed on one day to celebrate all of who we are when we really need to be celebrating ourselves everyday.
It is so true, why is it we only celebrate ourselves for one day on our birthday’s – hence this line sticking out for me “the truth was I wanted to celebrate myself and others every single day.” It can be that we celebrate ourselves, find that love for ourselves each and every day.
The act of celebration is also the act of appreciation – not of the things that we have done or achieved, but a celebration of who we are, naturally and deeply so. And the more we learn to appreciate all of who we are and the enormity of what we are here for, then the more this shapes a foundation for us to stand upon that will be our life raft or solid ground to stand on when we do make a mistake or do something silly. There is no perfection, but when you can appreciate the grandness of who you are, then it is far more easy to accept and laugh off the small things that we all make as mistakes. This is something for us all to build upon – appreciation and celebration, on a daily and consistent basis. Thanks Shannon for this reminder!
As I learn more about how I had allowed myself to become disconnected from myself and as I learn to reconnect to that precious self that I was missing I find that I feel more and more as I did when I was little where every day was a celebration and I was treated so lovingly. Now I understand that I need to be the one to treat myself with love and appreciate each moment and celebrate myself. I feel like this more and more each day and I find my birthday is an extension of this.
Gorgeous blog Shannon and super important to discuss. I recall at times not really enjoying my birthdays as there was something about them that never felt quite right. I definitely loved the focus and loving attention, but I was never one for parties and as I grew older I would end up spreading the celebrations over a period of a week, so I got to celebrate with friends and family. My idea then of celebration is different to now though. As a child I would eat a lot of things I would not necessarily have eaten all in one day (like christmas). This continued into adulthood adding in the alcohol as well. I am now learning how lovely it is to celebrate me in moments everyday and as you say Shannon that are really simple moments that confirm how lovely and gorgeous I am.
I love your point, that it makes sense to celebrate us on every single day of the year and not only on our birthdays. We are all divine and we can confirm this every day.
We don’t need to wait until our birthday, because it just doesn’t make sense to have 1 day of joy and 364 other days of ‘not joy’. Learning to sprinkle the joy into everyday rather than loading it into one is a wonderfully liberating and inspiring way to live – consistency is everything.
My birthday is in a couple of days but I have started to celebrate today…thank you for this awesome reminder. 365 days of celebrating each year, why not?!
Birthdays are just one way that we celebrate the highs and lows of life as are anniversaries, Valentines day, Christmas day and New Years day to name a few others. All these days have a massive build up that is good for some and not so good for others according to where they are at in their lives. Invariably however, what goes up must come down so the subsequent post special day come down as you describe Shannon can be ‘depressing, an anticlimax, like it didn’t happen the way they wanted it to’. Eliminating the notion that we have one day that is any more important than any other on the calendar year and starting to celebrate and appreciate everyday ourselves and all others equally will definitely lay new foundations for the way forward for us all.
A beautiful sharing Shannon – thank you for the confirmation of celebrating ourselves on a daily basis. Celebrating and appreciating ourselves is often seen as being selfish these days however to be able to celebrate and appreciate another we must first know this for ourselves.
Beautiful, Shannon. Here’s to making it normal to celebrate ourselves every day. If we do this, the world will be a very different place to live in, on so many levels.
Beautiful blog. Your right Shannon, it does make sense to celebrate yourself and others all the time, and not just one day of the year ! Like you said, it’s a confirmation of who we are and let’s us feel we don’t have to be anything else in the world but us. Only one day of celebration just isn’t enough !
I so agree Shannon – every day is a day to celebrate us in our fullness. Allowing that naturalness of the child within to come out and play!
‘Celebrate’ is a word that for a long time conjured up champagne and toasting. Every time a friend would have a birthday the champagne would come out and if you knew a lot of people that would become very regular. Every time we went out to dinner we would celebrate until we found ourselves cracking a bottle of bubbly almost everyday.
It was when one of our daughters, who was about 4 or 5 at the time, looked up to us and said with a lisp ” When are you going to stop celebrating” I knew we had gone too far. And stop we did, with the champagne, anyway. Funny now to think it was once our ‘norm’ to numb ourselves on all social occasions to as to avoid any kind of real intimacy in all or any of our relationships.
In the last 13 years since meeting Serge Benhayon and Universal Medicine the word ‘celebrate’ has changed completely for me, I now no longer need or desire to numb myself but instead see celebrating as an honouring that can be done on a daily basis without the farce of alcohol as we are all so worth celebrating in the true sense of the word.
Wow, Shannon. I hadn’t realised the extent to which I don’t celebrate everyday! From now on I’m going to work on how it is to celebrate me, and therefore all others more on a daily basis. I can relate to what you’ve shared about birthdays and growing up. Looking forward to that day, or saving all the celebration for that day really does restrict all the other celebration and joy we can be having. I’m looking forward to experimenting with this more, so thank you for sharing on it.
Amelia, this is the same for me. Although I have noticed moments as I walk for example, where I feel so lovely, that that in itself becomes a celebration in that moment.
A great quote Shannon “it just doesn’t make sense to have 1 day of joy and 364 other days of ‘not joy’.” Universal Medicine presents that if we appreciate and celebrate ourselves every day we can have 364 days of joy and perhaps one day in the year when we don’t feel so great. Another comment you make stands out for me ‘life gets in the way’ but when we choose to make the way we live a natural celebration of who we truly are then nothing gets in the way of our being.
This is such a delightful sharing Shannon, your family are very fortunate to have such a wise Mother. I would like to take this beautiful idea and make any day or any time a celebration no matter who I am with, just enjoy the moments as they arise. Thank you.
As a child I loved having birthdays. It was ‘my’ day, a day when family members would bring me presents, sing happy birthday, have cake and eat my favourite dinner. I loved this attention. However as I got older the attention and presents started to become less and less but my expectation for ‘my’ birthday had not. My birthdays had begun to get disappointing as the attention was fading. I have recently celebrated a birthday and I made my sister and her children spend the day with me. I could totally feel my sister under pressure to make me happy on ‘my’ birthday. I rate how successful my birthday is by how many people contact me on ‘my’ birthday so I don’t even get to enjoy the day as I’m calculating who hasn’t called yet and if they forget I am totally crushed. What Shannon presents in her blog sounds so amazing. Celebrating our amazingness everyday with ourselves first and then expressing it with others sounds way more fun and joyful than trying to recreate the past to get some attention from others.
To celebrate and appreciate ourselves every day ! Yes I am starting to really live this and it is amazing what this brings — increased feelings of self worth, bringing more of my love to live and the capacity to share and celebrate with others in an every day way, without the need for a big celebration which inevitably takes me away from my lovely self in the all the planning and overstimulation.
It leaves us to ponder and explore how in fact to celebrate birthdays, weddings, Christmas, as I feel that ritual is still important for me. I feel it is about maintaining the focus on simplicity and connection with people at the core, and removing any expectation on what the event will bring.
Thank you Shannon for the reminder to celebrate ourselves and each other every day and confirm our amazingness. It is beautiful to hear that your children are growing up with being celebrated for who they are each day so they can appreciate their amazingness and not need to look outside themselves – what a gift for them and an awesome reflection for others.
I remember when I was young I loved my birthday as that day everyone was loving to me, that day no one shouted or told me off. They brought me presents and gave me cuddles. That day was always special, I use to look forward to my birthday every year, because I knew that day everyone would be me nice to me. As I grew older I just came to accept that my birthday was one day I would make extra effort in how I looked what I wore as that’s the day when everyone will be nice and I would be the centre of attention. I used to wonder when I was growing up why was everyday not my birthday, where people are nice all the time. It was not until I met Universal Medicine that I got to understand everyday can be my birthday, by the choices I make in each moment.
This is a great stepping stone into breaking down one of the great illusions of life – that there has to be high points and low points. What Universal Medicine assists us to re-connect with is the fact that life does not have to be this way. And so, with this in mind, there is an even better word than celebration, and that is confirmation. For when we truly connect to who we are, there is no need to celebrate something that just naturally is. The act of celebration rather then just becomes a confirmation of what we already know, and thus the nature of the celebration is completely different, for there is no high point to reach when we do, and therefore no low point there after.
I love this distinction Adam, between celebration and confirmation. The anxiety that goes into making or wanting that one day to be special, compared to the confirmation I get from myself when I allow and appreciate all that I am on any day not just my birthday.
I love what you have shared Adam. Makes me wonder to whether we have lost the true meaning of the word celebration, for it currently comes with so much expectation, as you say high and low points. As you have shared when we take the opportunities to celebrate ourselves in very simple moments in everyday, we are actually confirming who we are, which then can lead on to another moment of celebration. Bring on the cycle of celebration and confirmation I say rather than the highs and lows of what I used to think celebration was.
Such a simple and deeply important message to appreciate and celebrate ourselves and others in every moment and every day.
Thank you Shannon. A huge reminder of how important it is to always be appreciating what we bring. I’m struggling with this very concept at the moment and know that I need to stop the negative chatter running through my head every day that leaves me exhausted. I know I am amazing, but to truly accept that in every moment is definitely something that requires practice. And I am one to usually hate birthdays…because I shy away from celebration of me! It’s crazy, but a work in progress.
Celebrating ourselves should indeed by a normal practice… it feels deeply nurturing and supportive to take stock and appreciate ourselves like this.
“….to be in celebration of ourselves, and each other. It was so normal to me, so what were all the other days I was living?” Great to celebrate (ourselves and others) every day of the year. When we feel special every day – why not?
Lovely blog Shannon. And a great reminder why do we wait for one day of the year to celebrate the awesomeness of who we are, instead of appreciating ourselves everyday?
Gorgeous Shannon thank you, you bring true meaning to the word ‘celebration’, I feel one coming on now.
Later on in my teens and early twenties there was this belief that on a person’s birthday they are to be treated like royalty from everyone around them. But what you’ve shared here Shannon has got me wondering about how would I now approach a birthday now that there is self-care and love in my life…Rather than expecting it to come to me from everyone else or what I may get/not get present, card, activity wise, what if it was just a day to take into account the choices I have made in that last year and celebrate with those around me the opportunity I now have to build on and expand wiser choices in life.
Shannon your blog has inspired me. I know when it gets to my birthday, the whole day I am constantly checking in with how I am feeling because it’s like a goal I have that I have to enjoy my birthday. So I’m always checking, and making sure I’m enjoying it, appreciating and celebrating as much as I can. I don’t treat every other day as special though and it would be cool to experiment how I would live if I brought that attention to every other day of my life..
Celebrating what we bring to the world 365 days a year sounds like a pretty amazing deal to me. Thank you Shannon.
I have always shyed away from attention. Birthdays have, for the most part, been something I’ve hoped would pass quickly. The more awareness I’m collecting about myself, the more I’m understanding why I like to slip under the radar.
In actual fact, I do want to celebrate my birthday, but I’ve made it mean that I’m not enough because every year I am supposedly older, yet don’t have what I believe I should have by this point in my life. A house, a family etc.
And so my birthday comes around every year and my mind has done some amazing work at tricking me into believing that I just become more and more pathetic.
I know these thoughts are completely un-true and I’ve been working on my lack of self worth for a few years now and slowly it’s building back up and kicking those thoughts to the curb. They are crazy thoughts, and if any one of my friends or family talked about themselves that way I would be horrified. So, now I choose to choose the fact that I am worth celebrating, and definitely not just the one day of the year. I am still shy in that I avoid attention, but one step at a time as my value of self is increasing.
For years I found celebrating my birthday was more a good excuse to catch up with friends. It wasn’t about me or celebrating anything to do with/about me.
The last couple of years I am learning to celebrate me and all I am part of, all of the time. So when my birthday came around a few months ago it was a reminder that a year had passed full of celebrating me every day.
I love the idea of celebrating people and ourselves every day – a consistency with joy that is always there 🙂
It all comes down to how we choose to see things and live – and appreciating everyday seems a lovely place to start.
I agree hvmorden, appreciation is the key here. With appreciation we can make everyday our birthday.
Appreciating and celebrating ourselves in the subtlest movement we make, make this a every-day, every-moment occurrence.
Well said Jenny.. that could be made the ‘normal’. Something I am going to bring far more attention to.
I feel to celebrate me even deeper with your blog Shannon. It is just beautiful to feel your joy and openness to yourself as a woman, and to all women, it is truly evolving thank you.
I’m the youngest of seven children and I can’t remember, that my birthday was celebrated only once – the chaos in our family was too much. Today I realize more and more, that I still have to learn to appreciate myself. But I’m on my way and I start to appreciate even the little steps I’m taking and I know now, Life is just wonderful.
If we can’t celebrate ourselves, we most likely won’t be able to celebrate others. In the same way that if we can’t celebrate others, we won’t be able to celebrate ourselves. It works both ways.
Absolutely Shannon, this is a great reminder for me.. it doesn’t seem to work when you give out more then you allow back for yourself or vice versa.
Life is not one big moment, but a puzzle consisting of many small moments. Bringing love and appreciation to these small moments is much more simple and will in the end truly be a celebration of the all.
What a lovely and thought provoking blog Shannon Everest. It has really made me stop and consider that I am pretty good at taking care of myself, but actually celebrating myself? That is a another level and something I could allow myself to do more often.
This is a powerful realisation that the very thing we love receiving from the outside world – which in this case was celebration, attention etc, is something we naturally can live with ourselves everyday. Talk about empowering!
Thanks Shannon for this blog. It’s a great reminder of the need to appreciate ourselves and our connection with others and the world around us.
That is an amazing and awesome way to bring up children, teaching them to celebrate themselves on a daily basis, simply for being. If we all did this with children imagine what the next generation will be like.
You’re absolutely right Sharron. Why can’t we celebrate ourselves every day. I’m learning to re-appreciate and re-accept myself the way I probably did but have forgotten I did when I was little. but during this process of returning to me, I feel an enormous resistance to ‘celebrate’ me. There is still some negative feedback I’m getting from up there in my head that is trying to tell me I’m not worth the trouble. I’m working very hard at disagreeing with that feedback, because I know that ultimately it is not true. It’s a work in progress.
I still do love birthdays, I am renowned in my family for putting absolutely tons of birthday confetti in people’s cards and presents so it covers the floor : ) and at Christmas too : ), my brother in law said he was going to get me a hand held hoover so I could clear it all up afterwards .. I do clear it up .. honest! And what was really lovely was, whilst reading this was how I remembered I did celebrate me and others everyday when I was little .. I would sing words instead of speak them (much to my family’s annoyance) and want to wear my favourite skirt every single day; but as I grew up this faded into the background and life became serious.
You are right, we should celebrate ourselves and everyone else every single day, and this doesn’t mean championing them or making them feel better than others, but just appreciating and meeting them everyday, supporting and allowing them to shine. I loved what you wrote here, ‘we miss what is at the very heart of celebrating. We miss celebrating all of the simple things, all the beautiful things we see and feel and connect to with others – the magical moments that happen with our children or out on a walk in nature, or even when we are shopping and meet eyes with someone.’
Celebrating ourselves everyday will make such a difference. There is no big fuss to be made as the stillness that is naturally there will allow us to feel all the marvels that are so abundantly there inside of us and around us. It is so beautiful, simple and so very different from what life used to be.
I agree that we need to confirm and celebrate all the simple things that make us the amazing beings we are, appreciation is a massive part of this, and as I have found it is something that if we chose to do everyday reaps rewards of feeling much more at ease with ourselves and our beauty.
Only celebrating ourselves once a year feels quite stingy when we are so worth celebrating every day. Similarly, having days like mother’s day and father’s day once a year – why just once a year when we can appreciate and celebrate them every day?
This blog makes me think of the fact that as I grew up birthdays became the one day when I would feel special and would look forward to having all the attention on me, not to mention we had a rule that you couldn’t get in trouble when it was your birthday – which was a double bonus.
Hi Shannon, I really felt the day after the birthday slump that you talk about, I never considered it when I was a child but now I can. Celebrating who we are every day for 365 days a year feels joyful and full of love, so why wouldn’t we?!
As a child I looked forward to having my birthday- it was nothing fancy. Very simple.
After dinner my mother would invite my aunty, and uncle over (she lived next-door), their daughter who was 10 yrs older than me. My mother would bake a cake and we ate some chips or nuts. Happy birthday was sung to me. I got a present from my aunty- usually clothes e.g. PJ’s. It was a lovely evening spent together. I felt special, appreciated and loved. – When I was young the birthday party confirmed how I felt about myself- simply gorgeous and beautiful. But as I got older I looked for confirmation of this from others, outwardly. So only if I was praised did I believe that I was good enough, not simply being me.
But now at 52, I am choosing to celebrate me everyday because I’m worth it!
Yes I agree lorettarapp, I celebrate me everyday too, my birthday pales into insiginificance in that I am worth celebrating every day.
I agree, why not learn to celebrate 364 days a year, this would mean continuously supporting ourselves to be all that we can. We can shine bright if we support ourselves to do so. I am learning that looking after myself is a wonderful choice but unless I celebrate that choice I do not fully embody it, a wonderful subtle shift that is altering my experience of life.
There is actually also a good point about birthdays and Christmas. It was a big revelation for me when I was 16 there was a Christmas I received everything I wanted and I still felt bad. That worked on me for a long time to see that how I felt wasn’t necessarily due to what was happening outside.
I also loved birthdays as it felt the time of year when I was special, however why is everyday not just as special? The more I’ve learned to appreciate me for me, the more each day becomes a celebration. A great article thank you Shannon.
Beautiful Shannon. I have always loved birthdays as they’ve always confirmed for me that I matter, and that other people are joyful about my existence and me being in their lives. What has been reflected to me on my birthdays is what I have felt deep inside, all along – that I am important and I do matter. The teachings of Universal Medicine have taught me that I don’t need to wait until my birthday, or for someone else to celebrate me – that this is something I can do every day – with and for myself, when I choose to do so – it feels amazing.
Shannon what a truly gorgeous article reminding us all to celebrate ourselves everyday in every way without any cake or candles needed.
So awesome to read this blog Shannon – more recently I have been taking some time (at random moments) to ‘bust some moves’ with some funky music just because I can celebrate ME! This is a big thing for me as there has often been a feeling of needing to ‘play it safe’ just like you have mentioned in your blog. It is a fantastic feeling to do this! And great confirmation to read your article today! Thank you!
This celebrating ourselves for one day never really made sense for me. I thought there was nothing to celebrate about me, now I realize on the contrary that this was just shying away from the fact that every day can and should be a celebration.
That’s beautiful Shannon. It’s time to return to that loveliness we felt as little ones when everything was a wonder and to gently celebrate moment to moment.
It is wonderful to feel Shannon’s celebration of herself. I have begun to appreciate myself most days and now after reading this inspiring blog I feel to begin to make changes in celebrating myself. I love the simple things in life but it hadn’t occurred to me to celebrate them. Thank you for this revelation.
What a gorgeous and beautiful realisation. Thank you.
Thank you Shannon – as you say, as children we naturally celebrate ourselves a lot with all the little things and the big things – what happened? Somewhere along the line we have been robbed? I remember people being very jealous of my joy at times. When my eyes are wide open and I have no expectations; I see our beauty, I appreciate this and I feel joy, I then express this joy through celebration, and it is confirming. This celebration expression can be as simple as a wiggle, a pose, a hug, a kiss, singing, a bath, a meal, a walk, and I am now more inspired to allow this to be a natural part of my everyday.
It is so true that we don’t give ourselves permission to celebrate ourselves all year round. As you said, celebrating ourselves is so natural when we are kids and we do it all the time. It’s no wonder we over indulge on that one day when we allow ourselves to celebrate. Appreciating the simple things and celebrating all the little details makes life such a joy.
This is pretty cool – looking at how many of us don’t celebrate even birthdays, for the fear of not feeling the same celelbration the next day. Of course this is just a choice, albeit one that in some cases, or many, requires to be re-learnt.
On my birthday for many years, it’s been a really downer for me. Not only may there be a sense of not wanting to feel the next day, not as self-celebratory, but a feeling of (I’m not worth celebrating at all). OK so last birthday I didn’t have a party, but the next one I am going to organise something – as symbolic for the fact, that most days I do have a strong sense of really ‘digging myself’. This could be when I catch my eyes in the mirror in the morning and smile, or find myself loving cruising to a job in my ute with the windows down and the sunshine poring-in and for no apparent reason feel my beauty and vitality.
Great blog, thanks Shannon.
Thank you Shannon, I have always loved birthdays, mine and others. I have adored how you were given permission to treat yourself and others like a princess or prince. Universal Medicine and Esoteric Woman’s Health has given me a free pass to have that daily if I choose to.
I have by no means reached a point were I am celebrating myself constantly but the fact I know it is a possibility and I see living examples of it from the Benhayon family is a life changing concept. No more just getting by or surviving life…Its time to celebrate!! Celebrate!!
I love it Shannon, thank you for sharing this. We have the tendency to compartmentalise so many things in life and only do them or use them at certain times. But this does restrict us, and basically stuffs us up with all the things that we don’t express because it is not the ‘right time’. So we are in permanent overflow from not expressing what is naturally felt to be expressed. I can definitely relate to this and vividly remember how it felt in my body to hold back from what was there to be expressed.
Birthdays, Christmas, New Year and all the annual celebrations have always felt false to me. Everyone one pretending to be nice, kind or at the least polite and civil on these days, because thats what is expected.
Rather than celebrating and appreciating ourselves and others, all of the time just for being the amazing beings we are.
Thank you Shannon for your insightful blog.
364 days a year celebration? I am in for sure. I love how in celebrating yourself Shannon, you celebrate us all.
I love what you have shared Shannon. It is crazy that we have only allowed ourselves to celebrate who we are, one designated day a year, and when we do we are often not truly celebrating how amazing we are. Instead the marker of the celebration is what we do on the day, all coming from the outside. There is so much glory within us to celebrate, in every moment, why wait for a whole year to come around.
Shannon I so agree – we need to celebrate ourselves and each other every day. It’s lovely acknowledging birthdays too, but when we realise that every day is special because of the people we share it with, that is cause for celebration too.
Thank you Shannon for highlighting the importance of celebrating ourselves – what message are we giving our children? To make more of an effort on one day and less the 364 days? Are we only worth celebrating one day a year? It absolutely has to be balanced with a daily celebration of ourselves and each other. Your blog has helped me understand more deeply the importance to celebrate and appreciate all those in my life and most importantly myself, to reflect this to others. As Vanessa says, ‘I am reflecting on how much I celebrate myself to inspire her (my daughter) to celebrate herself.’
Thank you Shannon, you have covered alot of points in your story. Your words have brought feelings and thourghts on how I celebrate birthdays. The concept of celebrating myself and others daily would be a good thing for all. To live everyday as if it is our birthday and everyone elses birthday. Now that is a concept that would change how we would be.
Beautiful Shannon. I have played down Birthdays for many years not wanting the fuss or attention. As my appreciation and love for myself grows the focus is so much more on the attention and love I give to myself on a daily basis and shifting the focus from receiving love from outside of myself. Allowing myself to acknowledge and feel my own beauty has meant that my understanding of celebration has completely shifted.
Birthdays can certainly be a point of reflection to heal – as your comment so clearly expresses.
This has made me realise the importance of celebrating myself as a woman more frequently so that I get to know even more the divinity that I am, because I will be having it confirmed to me more often. It’s like raising a child to always celebrate themselves and not wait for a birthday to be celebrated – you can imagine their self-worth would be very high and solid, they would not allow abuse or being talked down to because they would always be strong in knowing they are great. This is not to be better then others or big headed, but living who they are, the greatness they truly are. Why is it now normal to be self-loathing, criticising ourselves, talking ourselves down and lacking confidence, instead of knowing the greatness we are, so we can confidently live our joyful lives and reflect greatness to everyone so they can equally live their greatness?
As you say Shannon we place a massive expectation on our birthday to deliver the goods if we are not celebrating ourselves along the way. The day is destined to be a write off but if it is a success then the following days are going to be hard, it will be like coming down off a drug.
I can really relate to looking forward to that one special day when I’m celebrated and adored by others, but as you say, why not make that every day of the year? I love how you have expressed what you naturally felt in your childhood, there is so much wisdom that comes from the innocence of children. Our innocence seems to protect us from the many imposed rules and structures in life, and allows us to just embody the wonder and magic of truth – and celebrating ourselves and others each day is a really beautiful truth!
I love this line, ‘this was the most normal, natural thing – to be in celebration of ourselves, and each other.’
I’ve been visiting friends who’ve I’ve not seen in a while and reading this blog has made me allow and appreciate my natural impulse to celebrate them all and myself. Growing up there was a distinct lack of celebrating people for fear they’d become ‘too big for their boots.’
Until reading this blog I hadn’t fully appreciated how sad this made me feel or how natural it was, to want to celebrate those around me. As a child I saw many put downs – and felt them, of others (I tried my best to avoid these targets by keeping small). I knew that putting down another was the same as me being put down, it meant I couldn’t be celebrated either.
It’s a very sad state of affairs when we choose to not celebrate each other everyday. So thank you so much for reminding me how ok it is. This blog has helped me realise that it is something I naturally do, but tried to switch off, to avoid the pain of knowing how celebrating one another isn’t commonly celebrated in society. Definitely claiming celebrating one another from now though!
Shannon your blog is amazing. I have aways wondered why I cried and was emotional on my birthdays – because I’d never celebrated me and a day when I allowed myself to, I missed cherishing myself so much that it was really painful. So wonderful to read a blog that makes how I have been so clear.
Now I celebrate myself more than before, my last birthday was more lovely than it’s ever been because it wasn’t me trying to cram in lots of honouring of me to make up for dishonouring me over the year.
I have recently celebrated my birthday Shannon, and I spent the day at home. My intention was to celebrate myself, and it happened without me trying at all; there was this amazing feeling of joy and it was a celebration of life. So now a few days later how do I feel? I have spent an amazing morning with many other wonderful people and this afternoon my husband took me shopping, he is the best fashion consultant and fashion buyer! Tonight I will put myself to bed in celebration of the tender and precious woman I am. Let’s see if I can maintain this birthday celebration!
As children we were able to feel the preciousness that we are – especially, when we were celebrated on our birthdays. It is about feeling that preciousness again and love ourselves for being who we are. From there the feeling for celebrating will naturally grow.
How lovely to celebrate yourself every day and not wait to do it on one day of the year. Thank you for sharing this Shannon.
It really doesn’t make sense to celebrate ourselves one day a year does it, when we can celebrate ourselves and others every day of our lives.
It can be hard to even accept the idea of celebrating ourselves, except on special occasions, let alone live it on a daily basis. I had become quite shut down to appreciating myself until I started attending Universal Medicine. Thanks Shannon for reminding me of how central self celebration is to fulfilling our true purpose.
Helen this is so true and agree, learning to celebrate who we are for just being us, can be a challenge, one that is still unfolding for me. I appreciate who I am more that I have ever before, so reading this from Shannon certainly helps to validate that.
I’ve always loved birthdays too Shannon, and also feel that I have put an expectation on that day to be something amazing – not unlike New Years eve or some other ‘special occasion’. I started letting go of that expectation so I wouldn’t feel disappointed and tried to play down that it was anything special to celebrate me – when in fact it is something I can do for myself everyday if I allow myself to feel I am worth celebrating.
It really doesn’t make sense to reserve the celebration of oneself for one single day a year – because with that then come all the expectations of what the outside should be providing and it if it doesn’t, there is disappointment. It creates a kind of dependency – and despondency when these expectation are not met.
I can so align to that feeling as a child, when I am reading your blog…Thanks for inspiring me to celebrate myself like this everyday. And as you say: how unnatural is it to only celebrate someone or oneself on only one day?!
Work towards having an amazing day 1 day of the year or 365 days on the year hmmm…
I’ll work towards the latter.
It’s a tough choice lukeokota, but I too will second that. Now that’s a whole new level of commitment and consistency.
We have to remember consistency isn’t perfection either but rather a constant choice.
Such an awesome sharing Shannon, I love the feeling of birthdays too there is often so much love expressed to me or whomever is celebrating their birthday and it made me wonder, how would the world be if we would live this lovingly with each other every day? Expressing how much we appreciate the person not just on their birthday but every day wow and not just the other person but also yourself.
YES, this is exactly what we need to be reminded for everyday. To celebrate ourself and enjoy everything we are.
Being more loving in everything I do and appreciating me for the amazing woman I am is the best celebration ever. I must admit this is a work in progress. Thank you Shannon for highlighting that the celebration needs to be everyday not just birthdays.
Beautiful, I am not going to wait till the 3rd of August to celebrate myself, I am starting right now, today. And I already have, I bought myself some lovely pink roses..
When it was presented at a Universal Medicine event that I was worth celebrating every day of the year and not just on my birthday or special occasions, I remember thinking to myself – wow what would that be like? At first it was most certainly a concept – but I noted that I had already started playing down my birthday and not making such a big deal about it as it was ‘just another day’. But what I wasn’t doing was actually choosing to celebrate me every day – in every way. Now for me it starts with the little things, even just choosing something gorgeous to wear and putting on my favourite perfume, and it builds from there. It also becomes a joyous occasion to celebrate all those around us too, regardless of what day it is! Talk about bringing joy back into our lives – thank you Universal Medicine with special note to Serge and Natalie Benhayon, who really brought this to the fore.
Thank you for encouraging me to allow this feeling I had as a child of wanting to celebrate every day of the year. Celebrating and appreciating go hand in hand for me and I am working on the appreciation part to make it a part of my every day practice to appreciate myself and the things I have learnt that day.
I get such a lovely strong sense of you as a child as you write and how you truly loved celebrating yourself that is so awesome and your message to not leave that to 1 day a year is well timed as my daughters birthday rolls around and I am reflecting on how much I celebrate myself to inspire her to celebrate herself. Can always bring more love and appreciation into our lives and I am going to make that a priority!
The mythical special day, with its huge build up, lollies, presents, chocolate for breakfast (seriously), special food, going out, friends coming over, going to friends….and somehow a curious feeling of being let down. Seriously, how could you feel let down eating chocolate at 7am???
Now of course I can understand exactly why. 364 days of zero self celebration, and zero family celebration, then packing it all into one day. No wonder there was always a feeling of hollowness and a sense of everyone trying too hard.
Now the celebrations are coming thick and fast. For what reason? Just because!
No chocolate required, just the joy and beauty of life and me in it.
So true Rachel – it did always feel like something was missing, and you’ve hit the nail on the head.. instead of trying to make it everything that it has not been for the whole year, which is doomed before we begin, it can be the confirmation of the celebration of every single day… how amazing could that be.
What a gorgeous post of celebration Shannon! It’s got me reflecting when I was a child and agreeing about how awesome it did feel being celebrated on such events, and how even more awesome if it were the case to be celebrated like this every single other day. Such that this became ‘the norm’ and all the great expectations for ‘special days’ like Birthdays, christmases, anniversaries, etc were no longer there. Living every day in the normal-ness of self-celebration for who we are, and not because of a date. Wonderful, and how it should naturally be.
I find that because expressing love is not exactly the ‘norm’ a birthday gives permission to people to express their love and appreciation of you. It is socially accepted.
Expressing that love and appreciation outside of the socially acceptable time of a birthday could mean all sorts of terror for people.
The world might find out that you are loving, tender, beautiful and how much you love and adore the people around you…..
Awesome blog, birthdays are a funny thing. Some people live for birthdays and some people wish they didn’t exist. I have experienced both feelings towards my birthday. The first was putting so much effort sometimes 6 months plus effort in planning and trying to make sure everything was perfect and getting disappointed when things NEVER went to plan.. Because I can’t control life, I can’t control other people and so nothing that I have planned went to plan..
So. then I started not to like my birthday already seeing a disappointing day after all these years of disappointment, I didn’t want to have birthdays. And I actually thought I would celebrate my birthday on a random day that wasn’t actually my birthday.. This way if it was simple, if it was nice, if I truly enjoyed myself I wouldn’t connect it to the disappointment I usually felt on my ‘birthday.’
What your blog has got me to realise is that by me trying to change the date so it’s not an official birthday but, a day to celebrate me doesn’t change how I feel about my birthday, but opens me up to realise I can have simple birthdays if I want to. I don’t have to have a party if I don’t want to, I can spend MY birthday just the way I like, celebrating me.
This is true Shannon, how sad to reduce our celebration of ourselves to one day alone! I really relate to the type of celebration you are talking about here though – the extra care we take with ourselves, the appreciation and enjoyment of who we are, and our relationships with those around us.
Why do we only give ourselves permission to enjoy who we are on our Birthday?
It’s as though on your Birthday, quite often, we put aside all of the ‘petty things’ and focus on what’s really important. Or, we can, as you say, try to make up for the lack of celebration throughout our year and have expectations that cannot be met.
We can learn so much about ourselves from our Birthday, and how we can be more honouring of ourselves every day.
Brilliant blog Shannon, I loved reading it. I totally agree, yes we should celebrate us everyday of our lives. When you’ve pointed it out that we only celebrate ourselves only 1 day a year seems pretty crazy but I have done it and live that way. Awesome reminder for us to celebrate ourselves, our children and all of us everyday of our lives. Brilliant, Thank you!
Yes we are always worth celebrating. Every day I learn something new to appreciate about myself. It’s awesome. Every time I make a choice to support me, it’s worth celebrating because it’s huge to turn around a momentum that wasn’t serving me.
So true Shannon. Celebrating ourselves every single day is what’s needed. I really relate to what you have said about how we generally want to reward ourselves with the big things, but how we can miss those intimate connections with life and with others. The beauty in the simplicity and depth of connection with all that we are, is where it’s at.
This feels so true. Why do we wait 364 days to celebrate ourselves?
Yes life goes on but taking the time to look after ourselves will make it so much more enjoyable.
Thank you Shannon. Up until a few years ago my birthdays were always fraught with disappointment and expectation… I would usually get sick leading up to my ‘special’ day and always remember feeling down the day after, as none of it felt true. All the arguing or people being hard on me would stop for one day, similar to Christmas, but then would start up again the next day. This didn’t make sense to me, and even though there was a part of me that enjoyed the attention and family and friends showing how they felt about me, there was always a part that wished it would all go away. This disappointment and needing to be celebrated on just one day has pretty well gone over the last couple of years, since celebrating myself more frequently.
Something I also hear in society, if a woman goes and celebrates herself by buying clothes or getting her hair done or nails etc., it is seen or said as ‘spoiling’ herself, or people ask ‘what is the occasion?’…. as its usually the norm to only do certain things for yourself when there is an occasion.
I think as children we naturally celebrate don’t we? I remember that wonderful feeling of waking up and being absolutely thrilled that morning was here. I would fly out of bed and immediately embrace the day and everything that it brought. I think this will be my marker as an adult for celebration. When I can feel as I did as a child leaping joyfully into the new day.
I feel like it is my birthday everyday. I treat my actual birthday as a beginning. Every day after that is a repeat of that same day, building on that beginning. I usually keep a few things around me to help keep that connection, a card or a gift or something from nature that came my way that day.
Thank you Shannon, I never liked celebrating my birthday when growing up and it has only been in the last few years that I have been attending presentations by Universal Medicine that I have allowed to celebrate myself in anyway possible and in doing this I can also appreciate and celebrate others around me.
Shannon thank you for writing the blog. While reading I realized that I had stopped celebrating myself all together. If my birthday was coming up I was always adamant that I didn’t want a party. I didn’t want people celebrating me and I sure didn’t want to celebrate myself. Last year was the first year I allowed myself to receive love from others in celebration of my birthday, and this was only because I had started celebrating myself everyday that I now know I’m worth celebrating.
What your blog made clear is that in my case it was not 1 versus 364. It was 365 versus 0. In the last years I came to appreciate the 1 so the proportion became 364 versus 1. I have also started conquering new grounds with the remaining days. Appreciation has been a big one for me.
“Celebrating ourselves and others” everyday – what a lovely thing to do! Yes, it does not have to be birthdays only, even a small thing such as “a good hair day” can be celebrated? Thank you Shannon for writing this.
To celebrate ourselves and others on a daily basis is an awesome way to live, instead of saving it all to those occasions like Christmas and birthdays. Thanks Shannon for bringing this important understanding back to us all.
No time to waste, I am on my way celebrating myself! Thank you for the inspiration, Shannon. Awesome blog.
Beautiful reminder, why don’t we celebrate the awesomeness of who we are everyday and not just wait for special occasions e.g. birthdays, mother’s day, Xmas ?
It definitely feels like fun and very joyful. Thanks I’m going to give it a go!
Shannon, Thank you for your inspiring words on the way you have chosen to not only live your life but in the way you are also celebrating your children every day. You’ve given them such a wonderful foundation for them to continue on with.
Great inspiration Shannon, to celebrate in joy us and all others everyday. I love it.
Thank you, Shannon. Your blog has brought me back to some forgotten feelings I had as a child.
This touches me very deeply, I have actually often felt that I had to put on a face or pretend to be excited for others on my birthday. It felt like the birthday celebration was used to fill an emptiness in people’s life and the recipient did not really matter. There was not the natural joy about the event as related in this blog. However, I have felt at times in my life and certainly more now through embracing Universal Medicine teachings, how every day could be a celebration and some days, for no reason at all, it has felt that way. It feels so freeing to just enjoy being me in the usual activity of my day and sometimes on those days, simply connecting with another feels like a true celebration.
Thanks, Shannon. Celebrating ourselves every day – what a beautiful way to live, and a powerful practise to build upon that counters any remaining vestiges of self judgement.
When celebration becomes normal it is about the magic of each day, and a celebration of ourselves and others in all the other simple ways on other days as well. I love it, it takes the glamour and the “ra-ra” out of celebration, and brings it home to the heart of ourselves and our families and our friends.
Wow, thank you Shannon for this amazing and very inspiring blog.
I used to hate my birthdays, because I could not stand being the center of attention and would avoid to celebrate it and even switch of my phone so that I did not have to deal with congratulation calls – the public excuse was that this was MY day and I wanted to have it just for me ;o)
Well, now I know that I simply hated myself and my birthdays made this so very obvious to me. Since two years things are changing. What Serge Benhayon is presenting through Universal Medicine and the amazing partnership I live with have helped me to find my way back to myself again and start to make loving choices.
On my birthday 2 months ago a friend said to me in the morning “Well and now just celebrate yourself – this is your day“. At that time it still felt a little absurd to celebrate myself, but I did not reject it, felt into it and with this went on into the day. For me celebrating myself that day meant to be with my family and partner and for the first time in many, many years not to beat myself for not liking my birthday. We did not celebrate in a classical way at all, but everybody had taken off from work and we had an amazing time together and I went to bed with a broad smile.
Reading your blog this morning has made something go click deep inside of me and I can now feel in my body, what it really means to celebrate myself and that indeed everyday is worth a celebration of myself and everyone.
I loved reading that you went to bed with a broad smile. It warmed me to read it. Also to feel how far you have some from hating yourself to beginning to let people in and celebrate yourself.
I love what you share Shannon, as I have often felt this way about birthdays. What I hadn’t recognised was the importance of celebrating myself and others everyday, it just makes sense. To live as you say in joy everyday, not just choosing one day a year for joy – how different, beautiful and loving is that.
I certainly don’t celebrate myself enough, and neither do I celebrate others when I am with them.
Thank you dearly for your blog.
Great blog. Celebrating ourselves every day. I will celebrate myself today in full!
Birthdays are an awesome day, and deserve to be celebrated and so does everyday because we are worth celebrating everyday.
What a beautiful reminder to celebrate me today – and everyday – for I now know that there is so much to celebrate.
A great reminder Shannon that every day should be a celebration.Thank you
Simply it has always been with us, like a lot of things that we don’t treasure and take as our way through life. The sad things is we leave us behind and what we already know to become what the world expects us to be.
This is a great sharing Shannon. My daughter loved celebrating birthdays so much and she prepared everything so caringly for the day that i felt like a princess on these days.
This inspires me to take everyday this level of care to have a day full of celebration.
I used to not put so much focus on my birhday, it was more or less not another day than every other day. When my daughter grew older this changed. She so much enjoyed celebrating that i felt like a princess on my birthday. The care she takes to prepare those days is inspiring and supports me in taking that care for myself and celebrate myself every single day. Thank you for your sharing Shannon.
Cool sharing Shannon, it’s nice that we can now treat ourselves with love and care as if everyday is our special day, saving it all up for one day is too much of a muck around with emotions… going from super excited to feeling low again now that it’s all gone. Thank you Universal Medicine for reminding me how to honour and love me again.
What a beautiful way to live, celebrating everyone everyday.
I grew up in a family where a lot of emphasis was placed on the celebration of birthdays (my birthday parties as a child were quite over the top) and Christmas etc, and while I have enjoyed and participated in this tradition as I have raised my own family, since living with a more true to connection to myself in recent years, I found that the importance of making that ONE day really special and stand out from all the other days, has dropped away and I really enjoy birthdays now that are much more toned down. So yes, we may still have some specialness on that day, celebrating our birth, but without all the hype and expectation, which makes it feel much more real, and has brought the gift of celebrating ourselves EVERY DAY, in little ways. This feels much more balanced.