A Different Kind of Holiday Season

This time of year can be tricky.  For many of us, the holidays are full of happy nostalgic memories of Christmases past, but they can also be full of stress and expectations.  More and more families are bouncing back and forth between multiple Christmases, trying to include everyone, and get each person the perfect gift. We're spending lots of money on food, travel, gifts and holiday promotions surround us at every corner. Not to mention that one member of each family who has to have everything just like it's always been making any kind of change more difficult for everyone.

I'm sure this comes as little surprise to any of you, but I wrestle with this a lot this time of year. However, this year instead of giving in to the added stress and disappointment that comes with trying to please everyone (including myself), I've decided to have a different kind of holiday season.

Earlier today I had an "ah-ha" moment! What if instead of getting down on ourselves about falling short of high expectations, we asked, "What's working well?" Well, I'm one installment away from paying off my medical bills, I'm on budget for Christmas gifts, I'm feeling great after Whole30, and I'm mindfully tackling the nerves I'm feeling about the Holiday season. By opening our viewfinders to the bigger picture and finding Gratitude in our successes we can kick all those feelings of guilt, neediness and rigid tradition to the curb.

I find great joy in giving, but what about receiving? I treat each gift that I give as an opportunity to show gratitude and appreciation for the receiver.  I see you, I know your interests, and I want you to know how much I appreciate you. However,  I very often feel uncomfortable receiving gifts.  There's something weird about making a Christmas list at my age.  What do I need really? And thinking about things I want tends to make me feel greedy and unhappy. So many of us go into Christmas with high and very specific expectations of what we want and if that's not what's waiting for us under the tree the responses aren't always pretty.  I'm definitely guilty of this.  So let's let our gratitude of giving extend into receiving.  Not faking it, but imagining the giver put just as much thought into selecting your gift as you did theirs. Because let's be honest, they probably did!

We all have that one person in our life who's the holiday brat! And sometime's it's us.  So let's combat that this year with openness and radical Gratitude! Try a new recipe, watch your boyfriend's favorite Christmas movie instead of just your own (I'm talking to myself here 😂), and better yet, start an entirely new tradition that is all yours and has no one elses strings attached.

Let's take a cue from Cindy Lou Who and get back to the true meaning of Christmas.  Not that of commercial capitalization or tradition, but of Love and gratitude for those around us. - xo Sydney