As a massage therapist who has worked in the wellness industry for years, I’m familiar with a lot of the relaxation verbiage.  Terms like “de-stress” and “unwind” assume the perspective that the world is a stressful place and that we must seek ways to cope with it.

While that is all very true, I don’t want to make my world about “coping.” I want to enjoy life! So, I challenge you today to ask yourself what things give you life? What things make you happy? And by golly pursue them! Do more of them. Don’t look at pleasure as something you can only have as a reward after you’ve toiled or suffered, or something that you just don’t have time for. You deserve pleasure! Beauty, joy, and pleasure ARE life.

So, change your perspective a little today. View stress as something that’s moving you away from the things that give you life. And refuse it! If we let stress be our “norm,” we will always just be”coping”–and that ain’t no way to live.

Do something you love today.

Alyssa Vine-Hodge