Unnecessary pleasures
This #thankyouthursday, I am grateful for unnecessary pleasures.
In particular, I’m thinking of my high-tech coffee mug and the counseling program I signed up for yesterday.
I don’t need a high-tech mug.
In fact, when my friend gave it to me, I was almost put off. I knew the gift cost around $100, and the idea of spending $100 on a coffee mug felt absurd if not obscene.
But you know what? I love the high-tech coffee mug. I would never have bought it for myself, but it keeps my coffee at the perfect temperature for over an hour. Which means I can get distracted frequently and still have the pleasure of a very warm beverage whenever I remember to take a sip.
Not a necessary pleasure, but a welcome one.
Similarly, I don’t need a counseling program.
There have certainly been times when I required therapeutic support, and I am so grateful I was able to receive it. But these days, I’m not in crisis. Yes, I deal with anxiety on a daily basis, but I’ve gotten very good at managing it—so good that I forget not everyone has to regularly fend off catastrophic thoughts.
Then yesterday a counselor I respect and trust offered a program to support highly sensitive people like me, and I signed up. Just because I wanted to!
Not a necessary pleasure, but a welcome one.
It feels significant to welcome in unnecessary pleasures—enhancements that bring me joy and comfort even though I would be perfectly okay without them. Because there is a pervasive “background belief” in my body that says I’m allowed to be healthy and safe and happy…but not TOO happy.
But what is “too happy”?!?!
I’ll let you know when I find out. 🥰
Love > fear,
Christina