I know so many people, myself included, who are struggling with the intensity of our time. This seems to be magnified during the holiday season for so many of us empaths. The mainstream madness would have us working all the hours we possibly can and then spending all that extra money shopping until we are dropping. Gotta love Christmas (because if you don’t you are labelled a grinch?)!
So now that it’s all said and done we are left with an after holiday-bonanza depression. Coming down from the rush of it all and our credit card statements leaves us with the shocking reality of what the hell do we do now? Except now its the new year, and society is telling us to set goals, make new resolutions and immediately get off to a running start working on them. Well, I for one, am feeling like the thinly spread peanut butter that’s been scraped from the bottom of the jar and is so dry that it is barely malleable enough to spread on toast.
Instead of trying to mask that dry peanut butter feeling with more jam, is there a way we can do it differently? I have mostly good news for you – YES there is a better way! We don’t have to take on the collective patriarchal “hustle” that has been thrown up all over us. However, it is almost impossible to avoid the intense energy of the season because it is all around us. To avoid sounding too grinch-like, I would just like to note that I actually do enjoy Christmas and I also do get excited about seeing family, delicious food and gift giving/receiving. I think that the problem is that we go way too far with this stuff. We are lacking the time we need to go inward and reflect, feel, and process the emotions of the season. Winter in nature is a time of hibernation and so it feels unnatural to go against this with all this outward overstimulation.
So let’s start where we are, because where else can we be? Its the first week of January and I’d like to challenge myself to allow myself time to dream. To be home, to be quiet, to feel rested, to slow down. To awaken to the winter and use my senses to greet this beautiful season of wonder. Allow your resolutions to come to you over the next month, but give them the space to do so. May your dreams and desires for this year come to you through a more heart-centered and soul-fed place. If you are not feeling in touch with your heart and soul, what is one simple thing you can do to begin shifting that? Breathe. Just breathe. Take it in. Allow your dreams to find you. Become findable. Do one thing for yourself to show yourself how much you matter. Just one small thing. Because these little acts of self love have the power to shift our perspective, to shift our emotions, to shift us into gratitude.
Facing Yourself 