As the end of year holidays approach, how will you be celebrating them ~ or will you?

For me, I celebrate every day. I don’t wait for a man-made holiday before enjoying myself yet, it seems many do. They wait until Thanksgiving to be “thankful”; they wait until Christmas (or whichever holy day they “celebrate”) to be joyous yet, are they really?

I so often hear people say they HAVE to spend time with family. One month it’s “her” family; the next is “his” family. The way they say it really doesn’t sound like fun, celebration, joyousness to me. Sounds more like torture.

One of the things I am really grate-filled for is that many years ago, I had a chance to go to Hawaii for Christmas/new years. At first, I felt guilty for not going back to Connecticut to visit my mother yet, all I had to do was remember how it was spending my last Christmas with her. It was dismal. Did I need to repeat that? Noooooo. So! I went to Hawaii and stayed with some folk living on the north shore of Oahu. I got to be alone with me, on the beach for much of the time. They shared with me places the “natives” go rather than just the touristy places.

For the new year, we went to the main drag in Oahu and watched fireworks.

It was delightful to spend two weeks in Hawaii while much of the U.S. was enjoying the cold.

Many clients I work with tell me how they HAVE to be with their parents even though they don’t want to be. How old do people have to be for them to go out and enjoy EVERY moment of their lives without guilt? They are afraid of the often passive/aggressive manipulation their parents will put them through if they don’t do as expected. They want to be “nice” to the extent of creating frustration within themselves. How fun is that?

Is it any wonder that people become ill so often after the holidays? Do you know that ill-feelings, frustration, anger, etc. are just as much a part of suppression of the immune system as anything else is? That often goes on top of the feeling of HAVING to eat what’s on the table even though, we don’t want to. Family will often add guilt to that too ~ “It’s only ONE day!” “.. but I worked so HARD on this meal!” “.. go ahead, one bite wont hurt you!”… Sound supportive? Life-affirming? Loving?

Oh yeah, let’s drop the “they have good intentions”. Where do people come up with that one? Good intentions? For whom?

Consider this ~ We go where we don’t want to be, we eat what we don’t want to eat; we spend time with people we don’t want to spend time with watching them eat, drink and smoke ~ and we can’t/wont say anything about it because we know it wont do any good PLUS “..it’s the holidays!!! Have fun! Enjoy life..” even if it makes you sick!. Now, is that a recipe for joy and happiness?

Once I spent the first Christmas out enjoying MY life, doing it again became easier and more enjoyable. I’d rather have a little bit of guilt and enjoying myself for the rest of the time, than to spend two weeks being miserable with a few minutes of pleasure.

Of course, many people enjoy getting together with their families over the holidays and to them, I salute you! (with a glass of fresh-squeezed orange juice, of course).

Revvell

P.S. Less than three weeks left before this sale runs out. Get ‘em before I run out of them or the price goes up. They are normally $28.