Guilty Pleasures
There is at least 1 thing we enjoy secretly, no matter how old we get.
I had just finished my exercise and was all sweaty. With heavy steps, I just managed to open my cupboard and take out something before I plopped myself down on my bed. My roommate couldn’t believe her eyes when she saw what it was. A big packet of chips!
She couldn’t help but laugh uncontrollably before she could get herself to ask me the obvious question - what was the use of exercising so hard if I was going to indulge in a large packet of chips right after it.
My answer, though hilarious, made her accept my logic. I told her that my main motivation to exercise was so that I could enjoy that packet of chips without feeling guilty!
Don’t we all have some or the other such kind of guilty pleasures that we do indulge in sometimes? Though we may teach our children and the ones younger to us otherwise, but, sometimes, don’t we feel happy defying our own rules in private, that we created for ourselves and our loved ones to live a quality life.
Some of the most common of these guilty pleasures are:
- Licking the cream off a cream biscuit when no one is watching
- Licking that gravy from the Maggi bowl once it is over
- Licking the inside of a chips wrapper once it is over.
- Purposefully letting the chocolate melt and then licking it.
- Picking that piece of chip that just fell down and eating it by convincing ourselves of the 5 seconds rule, though we teach our kids never to eat any food items that’s fallen on the ground.
- Dancing and singing in the shower imagining yourself to be a movie star.
- Binge watching an entire series on an OTT platform, knowing that you have office the next day and you need to get up early.
- Skipping bath on a cool, rainy day.
- Skipping exercise by convincing ourselves with some senseless excuse.
- Canceling plans to go out at the last minute just because we feel extremely lazy and the entire process of getting ready and stepping out may just feel so overwhelming .
- Getting that nap even though you know you have hundreds of tasks pilled up.
The list may just go on and on. But the truth behind these guilty pleasures is that no matter how old we get, we are still children at heart. And sometimes, we let this child do what it desires and not be restricted by the norms of life.
Every once in a while, we need to put our guard down and just enjoy life for a moment, give in to such guilty pleasures which won’t cause any harm to anyone but yet are not expected from us to be done on a regular basis.
As we grow older, newer responsibilities keep getting added, and we are expected to behave in a certain way because the way we live life has a huge impact on our little ones. They consider us to be their role model and believe that whatever the grown-ups do is always right. They try to imitate us.
As we face life while growing up, it teaches us a lot of things, and we try to pass on this learning to our little ones, to help them lead a better life and avoid few of the mistakes that we did. Though every individual face unique situation in the path of life, yet we share our experiences and learnings with them just in the hope that it does help them in some way. But does that mean we never wish to indulge in something silly on rare occasions. Believe me when I say, everyone does! But, since it’s difficult to explain it to the young ones, we usually indulge in our guilty pleasures in private.
We also prefer to do it in private because we feel others may laugh at us and not understand how much we enjoy it. Some of it may not even look appropriate when done in public. For example, imagine someone licking their Maggi bowls once it is over while sitting in between a bunch of people!!! Though we may ourselves love doing it, it does seem inappropriate when done in public. We always hear people say that we shouldn’t care what others think, but when we are with people, as grown-ups, we are expected to present ourselves in a certain and responsible way.
Whenever we indulge in such guilty pleasures, the happiness we feel helps us forget the hardships of life for that moment and enjoy the little things that matter. It helps us to enjoy that moment and live in it. That’s why, more often than not, we find ourselves indulging in such guilty pleasures whenever we are sad or have had a hard day. It just helps our mind and soul to relax and be happy at that moment.
A very good and logical quote about guilty pleasures that I came across goes as follows:
I don't believe in guilty pleasures. If you enjoy something, you just enjoy it. No sense feeling guilty about it.
— Cristina Moracho
