Today will be a departure from my usual. This is a clip from my birthday party, which was a sweaty throwback dance party. Here are some of my takeaways:
- When it’s your birthday, let yourself be celebrated. Can we move past the societal conditioning that we all need to be so modest as to practically hate ourselves? What I’ve learned from years of seeing patients is that we’re in a crisis of self-love and self-acceptance. When I was in Brazil in March, I was struck by how we celebrated birthdays there. We stood around singing not one but 9 back-to-back happy birthday songs while the woman whose birthday it was smiled, clapped, and jumped up and down with glee. In the US, we sing one dinky song, while the birthday person sits there awkward and sheepish, wanting to recede into the background, and willing the whole thing to be over with as soon as possible. I decided to try on for size letting myself be celebrated. It felt amazing.
- When it’s your birthday, think about what lights YOU up, and make it happen. The default birthday for my circle is dinner and drinks. That’s all well and good, except that’s not what lights ME up. I want to DANCE! To Whitney Houston, and a micromanaged playlist of my choosing, heavy on Beyonce. There’s pretty much only one day of the year I can impose this on people. This year my dancing dreams came true. If you like bowling, or making music, or baking cupcakes and watching Jane the Virgin, or getting tea with one person, then drop any expectation to do the standard thing and DO THAT for your birthday. Do the thing that lights you up.
- I’m equal parts proud and feeling vulnerable about this video. I don’t typically wear pleather tube tops. I showed up to this party in athleisure and was promptly re-styled by someone with more pizazz (thank you Maryellis Bunn). As a mom/doctor/not-a-model, I felt like I couldn’t pull this off. Then the music came on, and I just let it go. I let EVERYTHING go and joyously danced for 4 straight hours. It was therapy.
Let yourself be celebrated, pick what lights YOU up and do it. Tube top optional.
