How delightful!

I wrote recently that all humans want acknowledgement. Today I've had a bumper crop! Thank you to everyone who has contacted me either here or elsewhere to offer words of encouragement or appreciation. I was happy talking to the walls, but it is gratifying to know the walls do have ears.

It is especially delightful to hear the sort of praise that we would most like to receive (in our wildest dreams). We all want to be seen. We all want to be heard. But do we listen to ourselves? Do we see ourselves?

In my role as 'Shopping Fairy' I am privileged to assist women - so far it's been gender specific - to find clothes that fit and flatter. The hardest part is helping women see what is really there. They see the negative reality, easily enough (especially the virtual reality that is in the software, not the hardware). We struggle to see the positives.

Think of a woman you know who isn't 'model beautiful' but whom you find rather attractive: now list half a dozen things you find attractive about her? Glossy hair or bright eyes, or a lovely smile, or lush shoulders, or great breasts, or shapely hands. It needn't be visual, either, it could be her fresh fragrance or the softness of her hands, or the sound of her laugh...

I don't think we listen to ourselves enough either. We don't listen to the whispers of our bodies - only the shouts. Some experts estimate that up to 50% of all our hunger pangs are really thirst that we've ignored and displaced? We don't go to bed when we're tired, we don't go for a walk when we're stiff and kinked from sitting too long at a computer, and we don't stop when we've had enough (food, drink, work or emotional shite).

We don't listen to ourselves and how often we say (or think), "I've had it with this stupid job" or "I'd love to travel" or "That would work better if...". The message can so subtle. Every time I go walking under trees, I am delighted. Yet it has taken me nearly 20 years to notice this is a repeatable and reliable delight.

Maybe I'd have noticed if it had been illicit: immoral, illegal and/or fattening? Encouraged by the media and advertising, we indulge in guilty pleasures, or fantasies yet ignore the moral, legal and nutritious activities we can achieve now, or work toward achieving soon, and that we find truly delightful.

This is post 22 of 100 posts in 100 days.