“With The Right Intentions, Allow This Christmas Positive, Powerful And Healing For You”
You get to decide how Christmas is going to be for you this year. Regardless of circumstances, you have the ability to make this a powerful, positive and healing time for you. Let me explain.
I know for many of us Christmas I a wonderful and joyous time while for others it is subdued, lonely or illness-focused.
So how can we ‘make the best’ of this Christmas and really use this time to celebrate, nourish and heal in a deeper, more profound way?
It comes down to being intentional about how you want your Christmas to be. Let’s plan to embellish the highs and be sensitive to our vulnerabilities in a way that is positive and promotes our wellbeing. A great way to do this is to work out your Christmas Theme for 2022.
Let’s Design Your Christmas Theme
An easy way to begin to do this is to focus on the emotions – they are our guide to what’s happening for us at a deeper level. Think about what kind of emotions you want to experience over Christmas. Of course we will all experience all sorts of emotions, but what would you like to be a focus for you? What emotions would be appropriate to really acknowledge so that they are honored and not ignored. Now I’m not talking about superficial levels here! Go a little deeper and tease out what’s below the surface. I suggest you choose between 1 and 3.
Here are a 2 very different examples. I’ve over simplified things here, but you’ll get the point and you can then apply the process to your situation.
eg 1: A kind of obvious one is just enjoying being around family. But looking a little deeper there is a strong feeling of appreciation towards your sister and for the ways she has supported you this this even though it hasn’t been easy for her. You may feel this love and appreciation for others in your family as well for different reasons. Can you articulate what this appreciation is for and how does it feel to you?
eg 2: Experiencing an illness or injury (yes that’s my knee!). How will I feel if I am not physically feeling well, or in pain on Christmas day? Would be easy to feel depressed! What if my health is not going to ever get back to what it was before? Ok, so Christmas may be more subdued this year.
The Alternative
The alternative to having an intentional theme, is to leave things more to chance allowing our emotions to be more easily side-tracked, depending on what’s happening around us. It’s a bit like an athlete who turns up to a major event, not fully prepared and expects to do well and qualify for the state championship.
Allow Your Theme To Emerge!
Now that you given some thought about the emotions that may come up for you around Christmas, can you build a bit of a theme around them that is true to what you feel and honours what is is that you need that’s nourishing, positive or perhaps embellishing. Using the above examples:
eg1: I want one theme this Christmas to be about appreciation of family members that have been part of my life
eg 2: I want one theme to be acceptance – acknowledging my health as it is right now. Accepting that I might feel depressed at times over Christmas.
Intentionally Shape Your Christmas
So now that you have 1-3 themes, have a think about how you might be able to express those themes or re-word them in a way that is not only real and truthful but also positive in one way or another. Ok, back to our examples:
eg1: I’m going to hand make some ‘appreciation’ Christmas cards this year and express my love to certain family members. I will find a beautiful poem to read out just before Christmas dinner.
eg2: On Christmas morning, I will still do a meditation I found on line to help release some anger I feel about my health and how it has affected me. But then I’ll reflect on the last 12 months and remind myself of all the positive things that have happened to me throughout the year. “Even though I may feel low at times over Christmas, I intend, as much as I can to acknowledge all the good things I have experienced over the last 12 months.”
Embellish Your Theme
eg1: I’ll make a card to hand out to everyone on Christmas day, expressing why I appreciate them. I’m going to make a real effort to find something to appreciate in people I meet over Christmas and if and when it’s appropriate, I’ll tell them! Or I might tell them anyway!
eg2: I am going gift myself a new journal, a nice pen and a candle for Christmas and spend time day-dreaming about the next 12 months and write down my aspirations and dreams for 2023 no matter how ‘big’ or ‘small’.
Possible Themes
Here are some ideas for your Christmas Themes – tweak and modify accordingly!
-Celebration of family
-Appreciation of friendships
-Progress with your health
-The joy of a relationship
-Christian reflections
-Taking a rest from work
-Acknowledging loneliness
-Reflecting on the pandemic and government responses
-The loss of friends & loved ones
-The level of your current health
-Health: your current state of health, healing that has occurred, how you’d like your health to be in 12 months time,
-Relationships: Celebrate family & friends, , appreciation and love for a partner, acknowledging loniness, the loss of friends and loved ones
-Spiritual: Reflect on how much you are loved, Christian qualities, your belief in a greater power,
-Personal: celebrate achievements, acknowledge disappointments, taking a rest from work,
How Would You Like This Christmas To Be For You?
So as you can see, there are ways to influence how we experience times like Christmas. I’d love you to let me know how you intend your Christmas to be this year.
Pictures
1: Pic by Monicore: https://pixabay.com/users/monicore-1499084/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3009949
2: Man thinking: from Pixabay. https://pixabay.com/users/peggy_marco-1553824/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=5011953
3:Deborah Hudson – Card: https://pixabay.com/users/hudsoncrafted-5201554/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=3481061
4: Candle: https://pixabay.com/users/congerdesign-509903/?utm_source=link-attribution&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=image&utm_content=1750640