It’s all about love

Endurance or exhilaration: the difference is attitude.

~Hilarion

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So many of us feel overly busy and pushed during the holiday season. There are parties to attend, decorations to hang, gifts to be purchased and wrapped, and cards to be sent. There just doesn’t seem to be enough time. Sometimes the month of December seems like a long, steady slog of activity until the New Year. It ceases to be fun and becomes a whirlwind of obligations.

The sad thing is that we do most of this to ourselves. We “should” on ourselves until we feel overburdened. We make mental lists of all the things we feel we ought to do, and we feel badly when we can’t accomplish them all to our satisfaction. We so very much want our holiday season to be happy, loving, and joyful, but we leach these very qualities away by trying to script it into our idea of perfection.

We forget that the how and why of our actions are more important than the what. If we choose to engage in activities we enjoy and we experience them in a relaxed fashion, they will bring far more enjoyment and happiness to us and to others. The greatest gift we can give to those we love is our calm and easy attention and presence. Our genuine caring will be remembered long after the details of a meal or present are forgotten. We can pare down our “should” list to those items that will provide meaningful interactions with others.

That being said, some busyness at this time of year is inevitable. There are lots of friends and family with whom we want to connect. Business parties will need to be attended, too. We simply need to remember, in all the rush, why we do these things. We get together with folks because we care about them. We honor relationships because they are important to us. If we can focus on enjoying and appreciating the people we encounter during this time, we will remember the intended spirit of the season. It’s all about love.

Let’s take a minute or two to connect with our inner divinity—our sharing within—to learn more about how our attitude can boost our enjoyment of the holidays. We will start by relaxing our breath and allowing it to become gentle and even. As we do so, we will picture our sharing within as a golden light in the center of our heart area. With each inhalation, the light grows solid and bright. With each exhalation, the light spreads out through and around us. We will continue until we become aware of conscious connection with our sharing within. We will feel calm, relaxed, and steady.

We will think of our holiday “should” list, and mentally cross off all the items that don’t involve connection with others. Perhaps we don’t need to bake twelve dozen cookies. Perhaps we don’t need to spend an entire weekend decorating. Perhaps a few well-chosen and meaningful gifts are enough. If we’re not sure about how important an activity is, we’ll ask our sharing within and trust that the answer we get is right for us.

Now we’ll review the balance of our “should” list and pick the item that least appeals to us. Perhaps we feel we need to attend a work Christmas party to strengthen business relationships. Perhaps we plan to visit a sick relative who lives far away. We will picture the event and breathe golden light from our heart into the image. We’ll ask our sharing within to help us find the love in the visualization and breathe yet more light into it. We’ll continue until we can feel happy and content contemplating the event.

We’ll also know that we can return to this technique anytime we feel stressed or rushed. We can remember the caring reasons for our choices, and we can breathe light into them. We can remember that it’s all about love, and we can choose to feel good about what we’re doing right now. This will help us share beautiful holidays with others.

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Divinely unique and beautiful reader, what are you willing not to do over the holidays? Please share…