Happy New Year!! 2022. Time goes by so quickly! And for me, I missed the start of the holiday season as I spent Thanksgiving sick on the couch. Now Christmas is over, the new year has been rung in and here we are.
I had all of these thoughts written down (on sticky notes, my journal, my laptop) that I intended to put together for a Christmas blog. As you can see, it didn’t happen. I still want to share them.
I actually think this is better. The hustle and bustle is over and you have more time to think about how you can put these into practice in 2022. The universe at work 😉
Being Present: This was the first Christmas since my mom passed that I didn’t spend copious amounts of time crying. Oh trust me, there were tears! However, I wanted to remain present. That was my intention for the holidays this year, to be fully present and to enjoy my time with family and friends. How do we stay present? It’s not easy. What IS easy, when we let it, is getting sucked into the past or worrying about the future. When we live in the past or worry about the future, we are missing out on so much. We can’t change the past. And 85% of what we worry about never happens. So we’re basically just wasting time. And time is precious.
Find your tribe: Being around like-minded souls can really make a difference in your life. You listen to one another, bounce ideas off each other, encourage and lift each other up (if your tribe doesn’t do that for you, time to find a new one). I kicked off the Christmas season with a celebration of new connections. Five of us gathered at a friends house. The hostess has been a friend of mine for years, the others I’ve only met via zoom a couple of times What a crew! I felt such belonging, love and friendship in this group of women. Grateful for the one who brought us all together. Which brings me to…
Gratitude: You hear it all the time. Sometimes it seems a bit much. Grateful, thankful, blessed. You see it everywhere. People seem to preach it, or say it just to say it. Ask someone what they are grateful for and they will probably say “family, friends, my health”. Indeed those are all things to be grateful for, but for me they are a given. There is so much more. I could (and probably will now, haha) write a whole blog on it. When my life drastically changed 5 years ago, I began working with a coach. One of the first things I was encouraged to do was to journal a whole page of things I was grateful for/appreciative of. Every day. Sometimes I challenged myself to write TWO pages. This was life changing for me. I encourage you to try it. I still practice this. Not every day, but whenever I am feeling down or discouraged.
Give: What IS the Christmas season about? Giving. Giving doesn’t necessarily mean gifts or involve money. Give someone your time, listen to them (really listen), give them your attention (without distraction). Give something as simple as a smile, holding the door for someone or letting them get in line ahead of you in the grocery store (are you really in that much of a hurry?). This is definitely something that should be practiced year-round. Not only does it make you feel good, but what you put out there ALWAYS comes back to you.
Pray: The entire world is in chaos (still). It literally hurts my heart. During the last year, I began reading the bible (I promise I won’t get preachy, haha). I downloaded the Bible app on my phone and I try to read every day, either on the app or my actual bible (a gift from my mom). The app is great, I signed up for the Advent plan, Journey to Christmas, and read that through the holidays. Now I am working on another plan, Encouragement For a World in Crisis. A phrase that has continually popped up for me is “Do not fear.”
And that brings us right back to the beginning, Being Present. Do not give in to the fear and worry. There is something so much bigger than all of us. Keep the faith.
xo
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