When I was in my 20’s, I knew what a “celebration” meant. It meant that me and a bunch of my friends would get to together and all get shit-faced in the same place.

And we would celebrate anything . . . birthdays, the fact we were all off work at the same time, that we went to the beach or had a Sunday afternoon off. Basically, anything and everything was a chance to “celebrate”.

What I love about the celebration part is that we were enjoying our lives, we didn’t feel the need to save our celebrations for huge events, and we got together to rally around a shared experience.

But what I didn’t love, as I got into my 30’s, was how much our celebrations were centered around alcohol. Now don’t get me wrong, I partake in a bit of whiskey now and again, but I’ve since learned that the alcohol itself doesn’t need to be the center of the party.

So this article is for anyone who LOVES celebrating and wants to do so on-the-regular without having a hangover the next day.

Here are the 20 Best Ways To Celebrate Your Life (that don’t include drinking alcohol):

• Throw yourself a party, just because.
• Get a mani/pedi
• Splurge on one thing this month that you would never normally buy
• Take yourself on a mini vacation
• Write a love letter to yourself listing out 10 things you appreciate about yourself
• Watch your favorite movie with friends
• Do something you’ve always wanted to do but haven’t gotten around to yet
• Make a photo collage from your favorite Instagram photos of some of your happiest times
• Call up your favorite person on the planet and plan a date with them
• Reach out to 10 of your friends and ask them to tell you the top three things they love about you
• Listen to your favorite record. LOUDLY.
• Put your toes in the sand
• Ask someone who knows you really well to recall what their first impressions of you
• Take a day off. A real one. With no internet. No phone. No work.
• Do the one thing that makes you smile the most
• Walk barefoot on fresh cut grass
• Go for a picnic
• Listen to live music
• Write a love letter telling yourself everything you love about being YOU
• Write a timeline of your life and mark on it times when you were really proud of yourself

And there you have it! 20 ways to celebrate you and your life. As you can see, most of these things are free and at your fingertips anytime.

When we’re in the throws of daily life, it’s very easy to get stressed about where we’re at (or where we’re not). It’s easy to let worry take over and when we do that we completely forget to simply celebrate the fact that we’re alive.

These exercises are intended to help you pay attention to the things in your life that are beautiful and right in front of you, right now. I hope you enjoy them!

Which one is your favorite? I would love to know! Tell us how you plan on celebrating (sans alcohol) in the comments below.

See ya later – I’m off to my picnic!

xo,
Sally

Photo by: Morgan Sessions