Wellness during the holidays

Getting through the holidays for some feels like opening pandora’s box of past hurts.  Every new day can bring on sadness, loneliness, and hopelessness.  If you have had a loss, grief adds another notch on the belt — another year without a loved one.  If you have family conflict, holiday arrangements put a spotlight on who isn’t getting on with whom.  Expectations of Norman Rockwell moments are met with the grim reality of financial burdens, health issues, parenting, and so on.  If we view the holidays as an escape from our problems, we are bound to be disappointed.  Rather, we can choose three wiser attitudes that will keep us in the holiday spirit and focused on fulfilling our purpose:

1. Gratitude:  Dwell on what you have rather than what you want.
2. Service:  Draw on your talents to experience the holiday.  If you sing, sing! If you draw, draw! If you cook, cook!
3. Celebrate:  Take time to acknowledge the steps you have taken this year.  Send a greeting card to those people who offered support this year.

If holidays were the purview of those with perfect pasts, none of us would be celebrating!  The first Christmas was a celebration not of the past but of the future where wise men brought gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh to symbolize in turn the precious, fragrant, and anointed nature of the newborn.  Let this holiday season kick off a re-connection to our purpose as valued, loving, and talented individuals.