Today’s post is in some ways a departure from my normal mental health Mondays. A few weeks ago I was contacted by an agency asking if I’d like to read and review the book, “How to Have a Happy Birthday” by Tamar Hurwitz-Fleming . Since it was just a few days after my own birthday I felt a certain kismet. I had agreed to read the book and review it on Goodreads – which I did – but I thought some of the points were worth sharing in this space to.
How to Have a Happy Birthday
The book is an easy read, only 126 pages. For any of us in midlife, we’ve become so used to celebrating others. We throw parties for our children, our parents, our friends, our spouses – but when it comes to ourselves, not so much. How many times have you uttered the words, “eh, my birthday is just another day” or something along those lines. As if birthdays are for children or only very special people. Well, let me (and the author of the book) tell you that YOU ARE SPECIAL!
One of the tenets of this book is that YOU are special and unique and worth the time and effort. Your birthday is a day like no other as it marks an important occurrence. Celebrating your birthday on the actual day is crucial and it should be celebrated independent of other birthdays. The author advises, and I agree, that rather than lump a few birthdays together, that we each get out own special day. Even thought it might be more convenient, it detracts from the ‘specialness’ of the day.
Birthdays can be difficult days for many of us. There’s so much pressure on having the perfect day, celebrating in just the right way that it can be exhausting. Tamar Hurwitz-Fleming provides practical and straight forward tips to making the most of your day – and the thing I really like about it is that she puts the own-ness on us!
Happiness Beyond the Birthday
It’s not just about the birthday, how you celebrate does set the tone for the rest of the year in many ways. So why not kick the year off in a way that is meaningful and special to you? Happiness goes well beyond the birthday friends. So many of the tips and lessons in this book are applicable all year long. There’s a workbook to accompany the book. I think it would be a great book club read!
In many ways, this book will have you examining how birthdays were celebrated when you grew up. That might cause some uncomfortable feelings but they’re worth looking into if they’re impacting your happiness today.
So while I have a year until my next birthday, I am going to take some of the ideas discussed in this book and implement them. Most of all, I am going to acknowledge that my birthday is worth the effort and so am I. I hope you’ll check it out, grab your copy here.
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