Forbidden Joys

There's a great exercise in The Artist's Way that I did last night, and it really shows me that, even though last year was all about taking care of myself and doing good things for myself, I still have a long way to go toward truly making myself happy.

Here is my list of forbidden joys. When I look at it now, it seems pretty silly that I deny myself these things, but it takes a long time to shift your brain from "You can't have things and you can't afford them" to "I can create anything I want in my life."

Forbidden Joys

• dying my hair blue
• taking two weeks off to travel California
• buying fun new clothes
• taking singing lessons
• taking Sundays off
• buying a macro lens
• taking more frequent hikes
• taking a painting class
• doing a photography tour in Napa Valley
• getting regular massages

After I wrote this list last night, I went on the warpath to make these things happen for myself. I researched blue hair dye, and to my delight, I found a vegan, vegetable-based, non-tested-on-animals option! Now I just have to get up the courage to do it.

I also found several voice teachers who are within a mile of me and a massage therapist's office within a mile of me. I figured out a way to take Sundays off (I have worked on the weekends since I can remember, but now that just has to change). Now Sundays will be my hiking day. Now that I know how much macro lenses cost, I'm going to save up (I was afraid to look before, with good reason: $450+!).

I'm going to make a trip to Goodwill and see what fun clothes I can find. We're lucky -- we have two stores close to my house. And I know the local adult arts education center offers painting classes, so I'm going to research that and see how it fits into my schedule. New classes start in April.

That takes care of the majority of my list...and I took two weeks off last year, so who says I can't do it again this year?