We often talk in “secret” and “embarrassment” about our guilty pleasures.  The secret and shame stems from guilt that we shouldn’t be doing whatever our guilty pleasure is.  But, we should focus more on the pleasure.  Life can be so stressful that we need to identify and  jump into our guilty pleasure.

I’ve often said that my guilty pleasure is reality TV, specifically food competitions.  I don’t like to cook, that’s no secret, and I know it’s not really real, but I love watching food competitions and can get lost in back to back episodes.  I get so rapt in them that I’m far removed and actually stress free.  I used to work with a powerful executive.  She was a corporate power broker of the highest level.  During a business reception we started talking about TV and she shocked me with the amount of “junk” TV she enjoyed.  When asked about it, she said her job was so stressful that she just enjoyed being able to pull back and get lost for a few hours.

If you don’t have one (or two, or three) identify your pleasure.  Feel no guilt about it if it doesn’t hurt or harm anyone and just focus on the pleasure.  Put it on your menu and indulge!

January 10, 2014

Melanie A. Nix – Triple negative breast cancer survivor.  Always striving to color outside of the lines when defining my new normal.