How to reclaim celebration as a practice of care

In this impromptu episode, I talk about something that often comes up in my coaching sessions, client check-ins, and even with friends: we want to celebrate, but we don’t know how.

So I decided to explore this a bit more deeply than I could in a newsletter. I share why celebration is not just a “nice-to-have,” but actually a key part of caring for ourselves and sustaining our energy for impact. I also offer a mix of coaching prompts and practical, low-pressure exercises to help you reconnect with what brings you joy and turn those insights into celebration ideas that actually feel good.

Whether you’re feeling disconnected from play and pleasure, or just stuck on what to do to mark a win, this episode offers some gentle support.

🎧 Tune in or read the blog post version below and let’s make celebrating yourself a little easier and a lot more fun.

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Hi there!
Welcome to an impromptu episode of Inner Impact.

I decided to record it when I realized that I needed slightly more room than a newsletter could give me.

The idea comes from a thought a business friend shared with me a couple of days ago when I shared that in my weekly or monthly reviews, I always add this prompt: “What would you like to celebrate? And how will you do that?”.

You know, almost every single person I worked with or talked to about celebration shared that same, identical thought at some point.

So, let’s talk about it!

The thought sounds like this: “I love the idea of celebrating, but I always struggle to figure out what I’d like to do to celebrate.”

Sounds familiar?

Well, if it does, this episode is for you.

Because today, I’m going to give you some prompts and exercises, so you can get started with celebrations.

But first, let’s talk about why celebrating is important.

And I’m going to use some passages from one of my past blog posts here to set the scene.

Why celebration is key

So, we are living in times of war, pain, horror, and grief, and thinking about celebrating can feel inappropriate.

However, if we’re listening or reading this, it means that we are privileged enough to have food, a roof, and no bombs over our heads. We have our basic needs met and probably even more.

So, I believe that we can acknowledge this privilege and use it to honor our lives and contribute to the collective good.

But to do that, to be able to have a positive impact and honor our lives, we need to care for ourselves and our well-being so that we can regenerate our confidence and energy, enjoy our time on earth, and join forces to transform the world.

Celebration is a tool that can support us in doing it, because it helps us

• Ground in the present moment,
• Savor our accomplishments and acknowledge the steps and the process that made them possible,
• See the things from the perspective of the steps and the time and energy it takes to create something,
• and Acknowledge ourselves for having been willing to try and take those steps, and this positively impacts your self-worth.

Celebrating ourselves is hard

However, no matter the time and context, celebrating ourselves and our wins is hard. You know, I see it in my clients, I see it in my business friends, I see it in myself.

There’s always some kind of resistance toward it.

Why is it so tough to acknowledge our accomplishments and ourselves?

I don’t have a definitive answer, but I have some ideas about the causes. Three ideas, specifically.

1. The first cause is that accomplishments tend always to feel too small or irrelevant. This usually happens when we set success measures that are not truly aligned with our core selves us but mimic someone else’s measures or some internalized external expectations.
2. The second cause is that we look forward to the next step or goal and feel we don’t have time to dwell in the present. This usually stems from a passionate, enthusiastic nature, combined with the concept of never-ending production cycles of capitalism, into which we were born, raised, and conditioned, of course.
3. The third cause is that we don’t feel we’ve done enough or that we are enough. This tends to come from an entanglement of our lived experience—which may have led to impaired self-worth and self-esteem and/or brought trauma—with the influence of the context in which we grew up, that is, again, a capitalistic society where the push to do more and produce more is constant.

What happens next is that we don’t celebrate ourselves and our accomplishments. And that is detrimental to our well-being and reinforces the negative cycle.

Not knowing what to do to celebrate

Now, when we do the hard work and are able to overcome the three causes I just outlined, we may still stumble upon a new block: not knowing what we’d like to do to celebrate.

And this probably happens because we’ve been so separated from the concepts of pleasure, fun, and play that we don’t know what we’d love to do just for fun anymore.

Finding celebration ideas that feel like you

So, let’s see how we can overcome this block, too, so you can start having fun with celebrations.

To support you today, I’m going to wear two different hats. First, my coach hat and then my facilitator and project partner hat.

As a coach, I don’t give advice or lead in a direction. I listen, notice, ask questions, reflect back thoughts, and hold space to help my clients guide the session so that they can come to their own conclusions, make truly aligned decisions, and tap into their inner resources to take action in a way that feels good.

So, expect more open-ended, non-directive prompts.

As a facilitator and project partner, I’m still not prescriptive, but I bring in structure and gentle guidance, offering tools, exercises, or frameworks that are a little more specific to support clarity and momentum while still co-creating the space.

So, expect slightly more leading exercises.

And of course, feel free to engage just with the ones that resonate the most.

Coaching questions to spark celebration ideas

Okay, let’s start with my coach hat. Here are four questions you can use to self-coach yourself to find some celebration ideas.

You can pause and start reflecting or journaling if you feel drawn to it.

• What’s one fun, pleasurable thing you’ve been wanting to do for a while and keep postponing?
• What’s one little thing that always makes you smile?
• Picture yourself in your happy place. What do you notice? How do you feel? Which activities usually make you feel that way?
• Think about those moments in your life that felt fun, playful, and full of pleasure and enjoyment. What were you doing? Where were you? Who were you with? Is there anything that sparks ideas for your next celebration?

Practices for picking a celebration activity

Okay, let’s change hats. I’m going to wear my facilitator and project partner hat, now, and give you two exercises.

The first one is to make a list of all the kinds of activities you enjoy.

Aim for variety in terms of type and also time and effort required, so you’ll have a chance to celebrate even when your schedule or capacity are not spacious.

Keep this list handy so you can refer to it any time you want to do something to celebrate and seem to have no ideas.

You could also make this list more specific, adding the kind of enjoyment you get from the activity. It can be helpful when you feel stuck on the decision of what to do.

And you could also make it more playful by creating a celebration jar.

• You’ll need a jar, some pieces of paper, and a pen.
• Write one activity on each piece of paper, fold it, and put it in the jar.
• When you want to decide about your celebration, shuffle and pick one piece of paper.

The other exercise is for when you’re coming from a tough period, and it seems you don’t know what you like anymore.

In this situation, be kind to yourself and just allow yourself to notice what you feel drawn to.

Start from there.

Try something and notice how it makes you feel.

This way, you can build your list little by little, without pressure.

Or, if this doesn’t work, use coaching prompts 3 or 4. The ones about your happy place or past pleasurable experiences.

Ready to celebrate?

Well, we’ve come to an end. I truly hope the prompts helped you find some good ideas for your next celebration. I’d love to hear what comes up for you, if you’re open to sharing!

So, that’s it for today! If you’d like to keep in touch and up-to-date with what I’m creating, I invite you to subscribe to my newsletter at caretoimpact.com/newsletter.

Thanks for listening, bye for now, and keep sparking your inner impact!