Rewarding yourself - how & why?

"Fridaynight, after a hard week of work or  just after a shitty day: you pour yourself a glass of wine, you eat a cheatmeal (junkfood) or anything else that instantly makes you feel good. Just because you've earned it and because you deserve a treat. Something in line with 'work hard, play hard'."

I used to be one of those persons 'spoiling' myself every now and then with something that gave me immediate pleasure. The pleasure and the good feeling were only short term tough...

The day after I would feel guilty and go punish myself in the gym or just trying to get in balance again by denying myself other things.

Why is it that we feel like we reward ourselves with 'bad' things? I thought about this a lot and tried to understand the psychology behind it. I even talked about it with friends and asked their opinion, but no one really had an answer for me. I think this happens because we only think about the short term reward and not about the long term consequences. It may be fun in the moment but it doesn't compensate for the feeling you get the next day (or later).

So I have decided, from now on, to only 'reward' myself with things that are really rewarding for me and that make me feel good about myself in the long run. This is personal and what is rewarding for me is not necessarily rewarding for you and the other way around... So let me make it clear that I am not judging people by writing this, it's just MY vision for myself and my life.

As others may go out on a fridaynight and shake all of the stress out on the dancefloor, I nowadays go to bed at 9pm and wake up at 6.30am to do yoga, have my breakfast in all tranquility, go to the gym and enjoy my day with little things I would miss out otherwise. 

It hasn't always been like this you know... I used to go party every night in the weekends because I had a shitty job and my boss was giving me a hard time or I have worked overtime and was so tired. But how could I just go to bed and don't "play hard" after "working hard"?!? When it is happening to you, you just don't see it. Luckily I can look back at the past years and realize I have learned from it and I have grown as a person. 

We always try to improve ourselves and be better than the person we were yesterday right? This worldtrip of mine has taken a whole new form and I like to call it "my lifetrip" from now on. This is going to change me as a person and my life in general. It will never be as it was before, because when I will go back I will be a whole new person. A better version of 'me'. 

So next time you go binge eating or drinking, ask yourself if by doing that, you really do yourself a favor... Maybe a massage, a good workout or a jogging session will do you so much better. But that is entirely up to you to decide what really makes you happy.

I'm seeing the world now from a totally different perspective now... I turned my life upside down :)