What are you left with after the razzle dazzle and hustle bustle of the holiday seasons?
Good and not so good memories?
Within this blog I am offereing you ways of how to take the best with you, always ,and forget the rest.
As we begin a new year, people just about everywhere are sharing one thing in common: the age old hope for everything in our lives and in the world to be better.
During the holidays we heard Christmas carols, received cards and greetings of all kinds with words of peace on earth and good will to all men; and people wishing us happy holidays and a happy New Year. It is truly wonderful to be reminded of the meaning of all the religious commemorations and celebrations; for they promote our awareness of the significance of our faiths and what they are founded on. And a positive attitude supported by well wishers for a healthy prosperous new year is smile provoking for sure.
It’s time to settle down; time to start acting on your New Years resolutions.
But wait! There are some things you need to do first. One is to read my previous post: ten plus tips on how to keep your new years resolutions. So go to my previous blog for honest to goodness help to be successful in 2010.…
Then before you go forward with your plans for 2010,
there is something you need to do ASAP.
Find a quiet space where you can be alone for a while, without a clock. Get comfortable, take some slow deep breaths and be still for a while. Let yourself settle down. Then begin to recall all of your happy holiday experiences. Recapture as many of them as you can, one by one; take your time, roll your mental video of the holidays backwards Let all of your senses recall with you, and allow everything good associated with your holiday memories to linger in your mind.
Bring into your recall the physical as well as emotional sense of them; how you actually experienced them; recall how you felt as you go back there in your mind. Bring into your recall the sights, sounds, and the joyful activities you engaged in, and the people and things that brought you warmth and pleasure. Savor the memory, hold onto it. Forget the stress you went through preparing for it all. Let it go. Focus now on the meaning of it all for you… stay with it for as long as you can. Let the good feelings bathe your whole being. Think of them as permeating themselves into your consciousness. Become fully conscious of the experiences you enjoyed; give them time to form fully in your consciousness,
whole as though you are living it all again.
When you have done that, get in touch with how the experience of recalling them is affecting you now. Linger with that feeling for a while.
When you have done that , decide to take all those experiences with you into 2010… and beyond. Think about what you want to keep in your mind and heart, always. Let your subconscious know what is of value for you to use up memory space, and let it know you want those good memories to be available to you so you can recapture good feelings any time you want or need to: For they will sustain you in less than happy times or when facing challenges to your well-being.
Then once you have done that, evaluate your overall holiday experiences, and begin to decide what you want and need to let go of from those experiences. If there was disappointment, or conflicts, if there was too little time, too much pressure and stress, or anything less than pleasantly memorable … recognize those things, decide to learn from them, and then let them go. Imagine erasing them from your memory banks, though leaving their lessons in tact. And then decide, based on your experiences how you choose to live through holidays seasons from now on.
When you do this exercise, it will help you in ways that might surprise you. Your true sense of values will come forth and you will find the resources within to enable you be true to yourself.
All too soon, if we are not careful enough, we move back into the routine of daily life after holidays and special occasions, neglecting to honor and memorialize our meaningful experiences, those that are worthy of our continued appreciation; or we could fail to take stock of what they have taught us. That’s a shame.
And because life is sometimes demanding and challenging day-to-day, we forget the unique insights that holidays bring with them, and how they signify our sense of values. They can, if you let them help you realize, if you are honest with yourself, how you may have been truer to traditions than to yourself. And since everything associated with the holidays occupied so much of your attention and time at the time, yet not enough afterwards, this exercise I’ve suggested will not allow it to all fade into the past without all due reflection, for it still has value for you in the now.
Do this exercise and let me know what you discover in your reflections. I look forward to hearing from you.
Happy New Year to you and yours. From Elaine Kissel