Let’s make this Holiday the best one yet! A little relating, reflecting and relaxing never hurt anyone, right? For most of you that are reading this, you remember a time when the Holiday Season was a bit more about tradition and a little less about material things. I mean yes, there has always been a gifting essence related to Christmas, Hanukah and other Winter Celebrations of different cultures, yet it can be a bit obsessive. We want this time of year to be about gratitude, celebration and giving and also taking time to gain perspective by recounting what moved us forward and what taught us tough lessons in the year before.
Spending time with family and reminiscing over good moments and what is great about the people around us is one of the best benefits of the Winter Break. What happens then, that so many of us end up stressing over familial gatherings, dinners and expensive presents that drag us to the malls at all hours when we would like to be home resting. Sure, there is a rush to it all but there is usually a bit of a crash too. We want you to enjoy all of your favorite traditions and the gifting that is grand and a wonderful celebration, and we also would like to encourage you to ask yourself a few basic questions, think a few simple thoughts and take a fun action or two that will allow you to have a better winter break and discover more enjoyment that will help you flow gracefully into 2013.
- Remember that everyone else is going through it too. It is easy to forget that other people have tons of stress and expectations running through their head for a myriad of reasons that we could not imagine as we all lead similar but different lives. In our culture it is easy to be in our own mini-world as most of us live in what would be considered a castle for many parts of the planet. We all have individual cars to go very short distances and don’t give a stranger a ride to often to gain perspective into the heart of another. In this type of existence it is easy to see our small world as the whole world. This is just a reminder to ask a few more questions and show a little more compassion this holiday and splash people with “happiness buckets” so that their day is a bit easier and I promise your days will be much easier too.
- Giving does not have to mean presents. Getting gifts for others is such a wonderful feeling. To know that someone wants something and to be able to fulfill that want for them is something that humans naturally enjoy doing for one another. During the encounters with friends and family remember to tell them why you are grateful to have them in your life and take the time to remember why you really are grateful for them; taking into account what they went through the previous year and how they contributed to your year. It is amazing when we have a moment to reflect on how amazing each and every one of us is, as we are all forging our life for our existence in our world.
- Reality Check! This is one of the most exciting parts of having more things in our life that we want and less of the things that we don’t. Too often we are not clear on what we want in our lives without limits because we do not yet know our limits. There is an aspect of what is called Emotional Intelligence. This determines our ability to see what is going on in our lives without our feelings mixing in and to identify feelings without the distraction of what is going on, in order to have a balanced sensitivity about yourself, the world and others. How we relate is everything and relating is usually tied to understanding and having empathy. Doing this with ourselves and taking a gentle honest look at what we are doing and what we actually want can help us to open doors to seek out ways of having what we want, which will totally reduce stress.
- Spend some quiet time. Sometimes we just need to rest, think about nothing, be with ourselves, let go of the attachment to pleasing those around us for just a few long moments and just relax. Letting go of all of the responsibility for a few moments of self-indulgence is completely natural and we always have our best discoveries when we do this. For Brian it is catching an amazing wave and for me it is just spending time with Hanalei with nothing else to do or getting a beautiful massage. We all know where our little place is so take some time to get there this Holiday Season!
- Be Festive, be Merry and Be Outrageous! There is no better time than the Holiday Season to have a total excuse to act like a child. Dressing up, singing in public and many otherwise embarrassing and socially ostracizing behaviors are totally acceptable and when you do it during the winter craze no one will think a thing of it and you just might find a new passion is creating something! Decorate your house with a million and one lights, get a caroling group together in your neighborhood, put on a play as a family and do something that is fun, creative and reminds you that we do have a right to play a bit in this beautiful thing called life.
- Play the “Anything is Possible Game!” What is the APG, yes, we have an acronym for it already because it is just that cool. Most of us go through the years assuming that we must carry all of the same things through to the next. Often it has been said that the people who do what has not been done differ only in one small way from those that don’t; they believe. It is a simple behavior but not something that everyone is so good at doing. For many of us we prove to ourselves that beating the odds is possible by just doing it or getting close to someone who did so that you see it must be possible for you. Since we are relational beings this makes sense, so how do you start relating? We have a few things that we think would be smart to look into and those questions are available within the 8 Days of Christmas Gift Giveaway from the Unstoppable Family! We love sharing with others the information that made us see it was possible by other people’s examples we experienced as well as real information like how to get from point a to point b, real low costs, health care, safety and the like when it comes to the travel aspect. Taking a big trip to see what life could be like by just experiencing how another culture makes it all work, can change your whole perspective on things in a really good way. Of course this section about APG or Anything is Possible Game is long because it is important. If you look up information and see that you can easily live in paradise for a year and catch some insight while catching rays and waves and fresh fish galore, what will be able to stop you?
- Give a Gift to Yourself. There is nothing worse than not appreciating yourself and taking care of your own needs during the Holiday Season! We get to recharge our own batteries and do the things that we want to do. Is there something that you really want to do or not do while you have a few days off? Is there a new restaurant that you want to try or are there a few gifts to self that would serve you just fine? Remember that it is all about balance and those in our life that we think would be so critical of us and not understanding for us not meeting their expectations, really are not all that critical and it is usually just us feeling guilty. Drop the guilt and give to you!
- Over the break take a moment to look at the things that we do that we do not enjoy doings and evaluate what we get or what we believe that we get from doing these things. If we before did not see an alternative to the things we really don’t enjoy, explore what might be possible and if we are making an obstacle that does not need to be there. When I was younger my family did have struggles yet we were always ok and what I realized is that for most of us, things are pretty much always OK yet we spend a lot of time worrying that things might happen and the truth is, things will happen in life. That is inevitable. It seems that the things we worry about don’t happen and things we are not aware of blindside us and we are too much in our heads figuring it out vs thinking of what we want and just paying attention to what is right around us because, we believe that there is always an answer. Think about it, how many times do we notice “signs” or indicators of something unfortunate we experienced that would have warned us off if we were looking for them before hand? We can sense more than we can figure things out and the time we spend figuring causes us to not notice our environment. Start by thinking about what you want and what you don’t and I think that the answers you find will carry you from there!