Treat Yourself

Treating yourself is one of the biggest things that has caught on in America’s younger generations in the past few years. When the phrase “treat yourself” first started catching on, I wasn’t quite sure where it came from or what people actually meant by it. Eventually, though, I realized that the phrase and “movement” spawned simply because so many people were too worried about others, their relationships, and how society viewed them.

At first, everyone took it how it was originally meant to be taken and would treat themselves to the things they liked, the things they enjoyed and wanted to do for themselves. This was exactly what the phrase meant to its core, and people became happier and more self sufficient because of it.

But lately, the phrase seems to be a bit overused and acts as an excuse to overspend, overeat, and do things that likely aren’t too great on the psyche or everyday habits. Treat yourself has become a way to justify buying expensive clothes, wasting money on elaborately lavish foods, or having cardboard boxes full of candy sent to your home on a monthly basis.

And to me, this goes against the whole point. These things you’re treating yourself should be few and far in between as well as something you genuinely enjoy. If an item is just a slight interest of yours or doesn’t mean much to you, treating yourself becomes an obligation and not a true treat, a real gift for rewarding what you’ve done for yourself in the past week or month.

I think that’s the problem, though. People have access to pretty much any good or service they could ask for at the tips of their fingers thanks to subscription services that ship cardboard boxes full of who knows what anywhere and everywhere. With such ease of access now, it’s easy to get ahead of yourself and go overboard with spending, eating, or anything else you do.

The saying “all good things come in moderation” could not be truer. The more you allow yourself to do something, the less exciting or interesting or great it feels to do. The less so, the more you crave it. A balance is needed in pretty much every aspect of life, and so it comes as no surprise that treating yourself should to. Just don’t get carried away by justifying every single thing you buy and do as treating yourself or else you’ll get sucked into the hole of the phrase it’s become.