I know, you probably don’t want to hear that it’s about five weeks until the Christmas holidays, but it is!
What kind of Christmas would you really like to have?
Try the following exercise to ensure that you get as close to that desirable Christmas as possible.
Close your eyes and in your imagination take yourself forward to the end of January. From there look back at Christmas, what was it like? What images come to mind? Do they seem light and bright or heavy and dark? Are they moving and buoyant or listless and stationary? What if anything can you hear? Are they nice pleasant words and conversations or disagreements? How do you feel as you look back at Christmas do you feel happy and peaceful, rested in your body? Or agitated and unsettled? Do you have any regrets? In retrospect do you wish you had been kinder or more patient? Do you wish you’d drunk less or eaten less? Do you wish you had seen more of some of your friends and less of your family or more of your family and less of your friends? As you look back do you wish you had given more time to someone? If you could change something … and that change must be dependant upon you doing something differently, what would that change be?
Now open your eyes and give some thought to what you want your Christmas to be like. Perhaps start from a selfish perspective and aim to honour yourself and your needs and desires by asking yourself “what do I want, what do I need”. Once you know this, you can begin to look at any compromise needed to accommodate those you love and care about.
Traditionally Christmas is a time of giving and it’s important to give time to ourselves and attend to our own needs, so that we have something left over to give to others in an authentic genuine way. If you martyr yourself by running yourself ragged to make sure that everyone else is happy, will you genuinely enjoy the Christmas break? Or will you harbour resentment because you didn’t do the things that you wanted to do?
In an effort to know what you really want to do why not Spend 5 minutes answering these questions.
At an unconscious level people are able to sniff out inauthenticity so remember to take care of yourself as well as you take care of others.
On the other hand if you party right up to Christmas Eve and then travel home depositing yourself on your family’s doorstep expecting to use the time to recover and be taken care of … maybe it’s time to be a little less selfish and think about how you can help out and make this a great Christmas for all of your family.
I know it maybe seems a bit early to consider these things but if you wait until nearer the time, you just might find that you say yes when you mean to say no and end up feeling dissatisfied with how you spend your time so give yourself some space to consider what you want and need.
You might find my survival tips for a stress-free Christmas handy too.
Enjoy.
