Break out of your prison cell

In the world of justice, you are innocent until proven guilty. But in the private world of your own inner-emotions, you are rarely innocent. Things as seemingly simple as skipping a workout or eating just one more slice of pizza can crawl into your psyche and trap you in your own little personal prison. Well it's time to go "Andy Dufresne" on that prison and break out!

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Give yourself a break! Treats are part of life (if you are LUCKY!). If you are the type of person who tends to get a little carried away with the treats life has to offer (and who isn't?), make yourself a schedule or set it up as a reward system. For example, I have a tendency to get sucked into the television. In fact, I actually canceled plans once while living in New York City to do something probably extremely awesome just so that I could watch the series finale of LOST on my lap top. Instead of beating myself up over the hours "lost" to television (no pun intended) and giving up my simple pleasure forever, I made a reward system. I got to watch one episode of my favorite new series every day as long as I -insert productive task.- Last night, I was talking to my friend Kara about TV guilt, because I could see that she was experiencing it as well, and I could totally relate. In fact, that conversation inspired this post. Hey, it happens to the best of us!

The moral of the story is to let go of the guilt and get going on life. There is no rule in the life rule book that says you can't enjoy yourself once in a while. So bake the cake, ice it & eat it too, and when life hands your lemons, don't just make lemonade - do 100 things that make you happy.